Mahindra says Tata’s electric car price ‘Unbelievable’

Last week, Tata Motors walked away with the electric car order from the Indian government. The company outbid Mahindra and Nissan. Though Mahindra has managed to get back the rights to supply up to 40 % of the 10,000 electric cars that the government wants, the company still seems stunned by Tata’s bid. Dr. Pawan Goenka, the MD of Mahindra has expressed disbelief at Tata’s bid.

Here’s what he said.

We find the price (quoted by Tata Motors) hard to comprehend. Our product is larger… our specifications go beyond stipulated requirements.

Dr.Goenka is effectively saying that the original bid by Mahindra was higher because the eVerito sedan is much larger than the Tata Tigor electric. Also, he is saying that the eVerito’s battery of 20.5 KwH may offer more range than the Tata Tigor Electric.

The government wants the electric car suppliers to supply cars with a battery range of 130 Kms. Dr. Goenka says that the eVerito with the 20.5 KwH battery may be able to go up to 160 Kms per charge, which is 30 Kms more than the stipulated requirement.

The regular eVerito that is sold in India has a range of only 110 Kms. So Mahindra may be using a higher capacity battery on the Verito that it supplies to the government. This may be the reason why it sent in a bid of 13+ lakhs, whereas Tata Motors’ bid was just 11.2 lakhs for the Tigor Electric. Now, Mahindra has agreed to supply 150 cars out of the first batch of 500 electric cars by matching Tata’s bid of 11.2 lakhs.

Two things may happen in future. If Mahindra is selling the eVerito at a loss of 2 lakh rupees, it may withdraw from the supply as there is still 9,500 electric cars to be supplied to the government, out of which Mahindra can supply up to 3,800 cars. Mahindra may find a way to bring down the cost of the battery by making long term agreement with vendors. We have not heard the last on this. Stay tuned to Cartoq for more.

Via ETAuto