'I wanted it in one year' - N Chandrasekaran on Tata Motors' first EV

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, under whose leadership Tata Motors became India’s third-largest carmaker, challenged the company to produce an electric vehicle within a year. That was soon after he took over as the chairman of the company, and at a time when the automaker’s Indian operations were bleeding and facing market challenges.

“I called Guenter (Butschek – the former managing director of Tata Motors), and said: We have to build an electric car,” Chandrasekaran revealed in an exclusive interview with Autocar India. 

This was a bold move in a market where only a few hundred EVs were sold, and most of them were for commercial purposes.

“He (Butschek) said it would take four years. I said: You may think I am a fool, or I have no idea, but, I said, I need it in less than a year. He said it doesn’t happen in the auto industry. I said that is what we have to challenge,” recalled Chandrasekaran.

In a short time, Tata Motors entrusted Shailesh Chandra, the current MD, to work with the chairman to execute the project.

It was good timing as Government of India’s Energy Efficiency Services Ltd or EESL invited a tender for 10,000 electric vehicles. Mahindra & Mahindra was seen as the clear favourite to win the order, given the SUV specialist’s sustained endeavour with the Verito EV in the lead up to the project. 

Chandrasekaran said Tata Motors formed a team of about 50 people under a “One Tata” approach, with key executives from all Tata companies such as Tata Power, TCS, Tata Elxsi, Tata Technologies, Tata AutoComp Systems and Tata Motors.

The chairman recollected how quickly the decision was taken. “Shailesh was given the charge. Then they shifted to Sanand and worked as one team, round the clock, to create the first [model]. My ask was: Don’t worry about building a super-duper car. First, build it on [the] ICE platform, create something, and then we will see where to go from there.” 

Against all odds, Tata Motors pipped Mahindra to win the tender, marking an auspicious start to the company’s electrification journey. While the project had some product issues, the EESL tender gave Tata Motors the confidence to accelerate the Nexon EV project. To be sure, Tata Motors had worked on numerous EV R&D projects that didn’t result in a commercial product, such as converting the Bolt and Nano small cars into electric vehicles. These had helped Tata Motors build expertise in the EV space. 

Tata Motors’ leap into the EV market has also been driven by the chairman’s personal beliefs. He has been of the opinion that the current model is not sustainable in the long run due to the high levels of carbon emissions. “Something needed to be done. The destination for passenger cars is electric vehicles,” Chandrasekaran noted.

The chairman of the salt-to-software conglomerate sees sustainability as a key theme for the future. “If we have to do anything in India, electric vehicles should be prioritised, because we have the maximum number of polluted cities worldwide. 14 out of the 20 are in India. So, if we have to solve this problem, in all our companies, we have to pivot.”

Chandrasekaran pointed out that the entire Tata Group, and not just Tata Motors, is making the pivot. “We also decided that in Tata Power, we would not put capex in coal. All our capex will go into renewables.”

Catch the full interview here:

ALSO SEE (PREMIUM): N Chandrasekaran's mega interview with Hormazd Sorabjee