More people choosing lower EV variants, 'range anxiety' improves: TaMo

People realising they are going to use electric cars in the city, says a senior executive

Relatively more people are now buying lower variants of electric vehicles (EV) as “anxiety” about range soothes, Vivek Srivatsa, Chief Commercial Officer, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, told Business Standard on Friday.

In 2023, the sale of electric cars in India reached approximately 82,000 units, marking an impressive 114 per cent annual growth, according to state-provided VAHAN data. Tata Motors dominates the Indian EV market with about 80 per cent share.

"When buying an EV, the first thing that the customer thinks of is about range. But we are seeing a little maturity coming into that aspect. People are realising that they are going to use the car in the city most of the time and probably once a year they go out of town. They are now right sizing their expectations," Srivatsa told the newspaper at Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2024 in Delhi.

He gave the example of Punch EV that comes in 'medium range (MR)' with a certified range of 315 km and long range (LR) with certified range of 421 km. Punch EV was launched by Tata Motors last month.

"The number of people who are opting for MR is relatively higher. The MR allows the passenger to drive 200-220 km per charge in a real-world situation...About 25 per cent of people are opting for MR because they know that their usage is like this (limited) and he or she doesn't need to pay for the longer range. There is maturing of the market but it also denotes that the trust in technology is increasing," he explained.

Apart from Punch EV, Tata Motors sells three other electric cars: Nexon, Tiago and Tigor.

"In earlier products, the variant that gave a lower range was chosen at about 15 per cent of the time by customers. The customers now believe in the technology. They believe that this technology is good enough for me. I don't need to over-index. There was a lot of over-indexing that was happening. The customer was thinking that since his biggest worry is charge (range), he or she should buy a car that has the biggest charge," Srivatsa noted.

Tata Motors has data that shows that once a customer uses an EV for a month, his or her comfort and confidence in that car "zooms up".

How do the company know that confidence has improved? He replied, "There are many parameters. But one parameter I will give you is how often the customer is charging his or her car. Initially, we see that even when 50 per cent charge is left, they will go and plug it in for charging. Whereas, later, the customer puts his car on charging when the level is as low as 15-20 per cent. That is a big indicator that people are not anxious."

Does it essentially mean that the range anxiety is coming down? "Yes, people are trusting technology. They know that if the ARAI certification is 315 km, it will definitely give a range of 200-220km. Earlier there was a worry -- what if I run out of charge in the middle of a road? That worry is going away. As people see more and more EVs on the road, they realise they are safe."

Srivatsa every EV these days comes with a charger and every parking spot has a charging point which is a "little bit of an overkill". "Society-level chargers are going to be the future where in an apartment complex, you have a charging bank (area). You won't have the charging point in your parking but you can go and charge your car in that common charging area," he explained.

Tata Motors had in December opened its first EV-exclusive showroom in Gurugram. The company has two such EV-exclusive showrooms. Srivatsa said that the company plans to open such showrooms in 40-50 cities across the country in the next 12 months.

Electric cars in India are expected to see a 30-40 per cent volume sales growth in 2024 as demand remains strong with more models across the Rs 8-30 lakh price spectrum set to launch, and an increase in charging points, Shailesh Chandra, managing director of the Passenger Vehicle (PV) and Electric Vehicle (EV) division of Tata Motors, had said in December.