In what has already turned out to be a record-breaking calendar year on many counts for the Indian electric passenger vehicle industry, market leader Tata Motors is leading the charge and how. Between January and September 2026, a record 255,326 e-PVs have been delivered by 19 EV manufacturers to customers across the country.
This makes for handsome 83% YoY growth (January-September 2025: 139,595 e-PVs), mainly powered by Tata Motors which is the sole OEM to surpass 100,000 EV sales in the first nine months of this year. Second-ranked Mahindra & Mahindra (58,220 units) is a good 50,328 units behind Tata while JSW MG Motor India (48,969 units) is third on the podium.
Amongst the mainstream PV manufacturers in India, Tata Motors continues to have the largest EV portfolio. It has seven models comprising the Tiago EV, Nexon EV, Punch EV, Harrier EV, Curvv EV, Tigor EV/Xpres-T (for fleet buyers), and the recently launched Sierra EV. Second-ranked e-PV OEM Mahindra & Mahindra currently has four models (BE 6, XEV 9e, XEV 9S and the XUV400) while JSW MG Motor India has six (Windsor EV, Comet EV, ZS EV, M9, Cyberster and Hector Tomahawk)
The Nexon EV remains Tata’s biggest volume driver, while the updated Tiago EV and Punch EV have drawn a large percentage of first-time EV buyers, particularly after petrol, diesel and CNG prices increased. That Tata EV is geared up to capture demand in the ongoing festive season can be seen from the fact that it despatched nearly 32,000 e-PVs to its showrooms in August-September, up 94% YoY.
A close look at both the monthly wholesale and retail numbers (above) reveals that Tata Motors crossed the 10,000-unit mark for the first time this May and maintained five-figure sales since then. On the wholesales front, the company scaled a new monthly high in August (16,549 units, up 94% YoY) and hit a new high for retail sales (deliveries) in September (15,178 units, up 106% YoY).
The quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) statistics reveal just how strong the growth has been this year. Q1 (January-March 2026) wholesales at 29,931 units rose 69% YoY, Q2 (April-June 2026) at 34,467 units jumped 112% and Q3 (July-September 202) at 47,150 units catapulted 90% YoY.
It’s the same scenario with retail sales: Q1 (24,739 units, up 56%), Q2 (33,317 units, up 112%) and Q3 (43,428 units, up 96%). Clearly, Q3 CY2026 has been the growth accelerator and accounted for 43% of both wholesale and retail sales in July-September 2026.
Tata Motors’s record nine-month e-PV dispatches of 108,548 units have ensured that it is well past its CY2025 wholesales of 81,125 electric cars and SUVs and 57% more than in CY2024 (68,80 units).
Given that the festive season has opened with Navratri on October 10 and will continue with Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali in October-November, it can be surmised that Tata EV’s Q4 performance will most probably be even better than Q3.
If the electric car and SUV maker dispatches another 50,000-55,000 zero-emission vehicles between October-December, Tata Motors will wrap up CY2026 with total EV wholesales of 160,000 to 165,000 units.
Tata EV penetration level jumps to 24% in Q3 CY2026
As a result of the strong demand for its e-PVs since June, the EV penetration rate in Tata Motors’ overall PV sales continues to rise. In August, the 16,549 EVs had a 25% share of the 65,253 Tata PVs, which marked the first time that monthly EV penetration crossed the 25% level.
In January 2026, when Tata Motors hit its highest monthly PV sales (70,022 PVs), the EV share was 13% (9,052 units) which indicates the speedier demand for Tata EVs as compared to its ICE models in the second half of this year.
For the first nine months of CY2026, the 108,548 EV wholesales give Tata EV a 19% penetration level versus 14% in January-September 2025.
EVs are now a key driver of Tata Motors’ PV volumes and in CY2026 YTD account for a fifth of the total 576,732 ICE and electric cars and SUVs sold. Effectively, every fifth Tata PV sold between January and September 2026 was an electric model.
In CY2025, Tata Motors had clocked its highest-ever annual sales of 578,771 units, including 81,125 EVs. Nine months into CY2026, at 576,732 PVs, the company is just 2,039 units away from surpassing that total which it would have done in the first two days of October 2026.
While this month (October) will see Tata cross the 600,000 wholesales milestone for the first time in a calendar year, November and December dispatches should take total annual sales past the 700,000 milestone and also nudge 750,000 units. Will Mahindra, which has sold 541,942 SUVs in the past nine months, catch up with Tata Motors and vie for the No. 2 spot? Stay tuned into Autocar Professional’s sales analyses and reports.
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