Charging ahead: Focus on net carbon zero, says TaMo's Shailesh Chandra

In the middle of the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, Shailesh Chandra, who had recently taken the reins of the passenger vehicle arm of Tata Motors after finding success with the electric vehicle (EV) business, set out to meet the company’s dealers.

“In my first meeting with them, I was literally ragged,” remembers Chandra, the managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility. He found that only 30 per cent of the dealerships were making money at that time. “Then why were the remaining 70 per cent sticking around?” he wondered, although he knew the answer. “The fundamentals were right — we had a strong network of loyal dealers, customers, and great products,” says Chandra.

So, he created a list of 52 issues that plagued the network. Tata Motors dialled up its ad campaign with some cheeky commercials, and in August 2020, increased the price of its models by Rs 12,000, passing on the benefit to the dealers who were exempted from participating in consumer schemes.

Soon, dealer incomes went up by almost 50 per cent. Chandra had won one battle.

The next hurdle was to ramp up production and ensure the availability of components. This was right before the semiconductor crisis hit the world. Chandra got the ball rolling with some out-of-the-box ideas.  Then he went to the chairman, N Chandrasekaran, with a plan to enhance capacities .

 Sitting at the multi-cuisine restaurant Tiqri at Taj Santacruz, Mumbai, Chandra says handling the EV business gave him the much-needed agility and a startup mindset that prompted him to experiment. His office has chosen the venue, an open-air restaurant offering an eclectic mix of world cuisines and traditional favourites.
 

 A small eater, Chandra hardly nibbles on the avant-garde take on pani puri that the hostess encourages us to try. I take a bite, and a sip of the tamarind water served in a shot glass.

 Chandra (51), who graduated in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi after schooling in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, continues down memory lane.

Even as a child, he was enamoured by cars. His civil engineer father encouraged him to join Telco (Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company) as a graduate engineer trainee in the mid-1990s. 

Jamshedpur life can be addictive, he reminisces, and says he was quite reluctant to move out. After an MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, which the company sponsors for deserving candidates, the institute recommended Tata Motors consider Chandra for a role in corporate functions.

 A meeting with then Tata Motors MD, Ravi Kant, in 2008 changed the course of his career. Kant was looking for someone with good execution capabilities. Chandra would work closely with him on Jaguar Land Rover, the British luxury vehicle maker that Tata Motors had recently acquired. Lessons learnt from JLR’s turnaround came handy in reviving the bleeding passenger vehicle arm of Tata Motors and kickstarting an EV business as an industry pioneer.

“While in the UK, we realised that JLR had all the fundamentals right: strong brand, products, quality, customers, and dealers,” Chandra says, digging into the fish kebabs that have just been served. “Financial discipline was the key focus of the transformation.” 

Chandra isn’t a big fan of eating out at fancy five-star restaurants. “There are plenty of nice joints, and if nothing, we order in,” he says, adding that he occasionally cooks on Thursdays, when he is vegetarian, and Sundays, when he makes dosas.

 Chandra served a few years at Tata Sons before going on a Fulbright scholarship where his research ignited his interest in vehicle electrification. He rejoined Tata Motors as head of strategy when Guenter Karl Butschek, then CEO, was working on his long-term platform strategy.

I ask him about the debate around EVs versus hybrid cars. 

“Frankly, Tata Motors has no dilemma around which technology to invest in. We have to watch for the long-term mega trends since there will be many intermittent confusions and distractions. The biggest mega trend is net carbon zero,” he says emphatically.

Pressure will keep building on companies from investors to sign up for net carbon zero targets, he feels. TaMo has already done so. “If we gravitate to any other powertrain, this accelerated journey will slow down,” he says. “Five years back, when we were entering the EV space, we knew that CAFE norms (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) would hit us.” Now that they have, every company is desperate, he adds. “Tata Motors has significant headroom of 25 gm per km of CO2 emissions.”

His company, he says, will keep investing heavily in EVs so as to have the full portfolio. “There will be pressure for other technologies. We are driving CNG as well; and are bringing gasoline direct injection engines, too,” he elaborates.

Chandra feels the universe of internal combustion engines (ICEs) will encounter increasing pressure to develop technologies that reduce emissions. Some companies will offer hybrids, some CNG, but tech costs will continue to rise as carmakers try to comply with emission norms.

So, if a hybrid is needed in the interim, can TaMo bring it in? 

“Hybrid tech is a commodity today – I can get it from anywhere,” he says. “We have it ourselves; we have done hybrid buses. Tech-wise, I am ready, but why put effort into something which is only interim? I should focus on the mega trend.”

Solar charging is a lever to make EVs mainstream, believes the man who started India’s EV journey by bidding for the Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) vehicle procurement tender around 2017-18. With the PM Suryoday Yojana, there are significant subsidies to incentivise solar rooftop installation. 

Around 25 per cent of the over 100,000 TaMo EV customers have a solar rooftop. “We can propose to them to also add solar rooftops at their houses,” Chandra says. “If we can take this up to 50 per cent of our customers in the next two to three years, almost 60-65 per cent of the EV charging would be through renewable energy.” TaMo has started creating videos to raise awareness around this. New car sales could also be packaged with solar rooftop options, wherever possible.
 

While the early EV adopters are willing to take the risk, the mainstream buyer has two problems: charging infrastructure and residual value. TaMo is working on resolving both.

The conversation pauses as we finish our starters. Chandra suggests we go for the buffet spread.

He quickly puts some rice, chicken gravy, and salad on his plate. The buffet offers Asian and Indian cuisines along with an array of cold cuts, cheese, and salads. I follow Chandra, and go for rice and proteins, too.

As we return to our table, Chandra says he is fond of Indian food and Kishore Kumar songs. A graduate in tabla, he says, “It was not the instrument of my choice then, but I have developed a knack for learning new instruments like the mouth organ, and have also grown fond of karaoke,” he smiles. 

Once a cricketer, Chandra has, however, not been able to follow the latest season of the Indian Premier League (IPL). “I will be there for the finals though,” he says, regretting having not played cricket in over 10 years.

So, what are the next pillars of growth now that Tata Motors is the third-largest carmaker in the country? In fact, it was the No 2 player in H2FY24, beating Hyundai Motor India with a 14.3 per cent Vahan registration market share, before Hyundai regained 

the spot.

Chandra says much of his time will be invested in zeroing in on the ‘bright spots’ in India’s passenger vehicle market, which is slated to touch 7-8 million in annual sales in the next few years. 

Moreover, he wants to bring more differentiated EVs, and convert the mainstream car buyer to electric. With the EV portfolio (with the likes of Avinya coming up), Chandra feels they can compete globally. 

“In the ICE world, our cars lagged in terms of compliance to emission norms. But in EVs, we are at par. We also have great tech, and we can compete with the best in the world,” he says. He has never driven anything but Tata cars, starting with the Indica. Now his fleet includes a Nexon EV and a Safari.

Will Tesla’s entry eat into his market share? More competition means more spending on marketing, on creating a buzz, more awareness, he says. “Competition is welcome,” he signs off.