Tata Motors to Indian Govt: Offer buyers FAME2 subsidy to make personal electric cars cheaper

Tata Motors is leading the electric vehicle market in India with their Nexon EV. Recently, the homegrown manufacturer added another electric vehicle to their line-up. It is the Tigor EV and is the most affordable electric vehicle that you can buy in the Indian market. Shailesh Chandra of Tata Motors said that the Indian government should offer FAME2 subsidies on electric four-wheelers also. This will help in boosting the sales by a significant margin.

Shailesh Chandra is the president of the passenger vehicle business unit of Tata Motors. He commented, “Currently FAME 2 incentives are not applicable for electric four-wheelers for personal use but the government should look into that. It will make vehicles more affordable and accessible to a larger set of consumers. In India, pricing is always a key factor.”

He was talking in reference to the recently launched Tigor EV. The new electric compact sedan starts at Rs. 11.99 lakhs ex-showroom. The Tigor EV undercuts the Nexon EV by Rs. 2 lakhs. He said, “Tigor should do similar if not better than the Nexon EV in the market. That much I am confident of. It is a more affordable vehicle than the Nexon while giving a similar kind of performance and driving range. It is going to be a force multiplier for EVs,”

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Shailesh added, “Demand is no longer a problem for us. It was initially when people were not aware of the technology but not anymore. Infact with the announcement of EV policies by various state governments, we have seen demand go up nearly two and a half times in the last two months alone. So we are struggling to supply as nobody could have anticipated that. On top of that the semiconductor issue (chip shortage) has hit some of the critical components. The combination of both is really hurting the ability to service the demand”

As of now, except Tata Motors, Hyundai and MG have their electric vehicles in the Indian market. Hyundai has the Kona Electric while the MG offers ZS EV. Both seem quite expensive when you compare them to the prices of Tigor EV and Nexon EV. The ZS EV starts at Rs. 20.99 lakhs ex-showroom and the Kona Electric costs Rs. 23.79 lakhs ex-showroom.

The Nexon EV is the best selling electric vehicle in India and Tata is hoping that the Tigor EV should also have similar numbers if not more than the Nexon EV. The total number of electric vehicles sold in 2020-21 were 6,000 units whereas in 2019-20 were 3,000 units. So, the sales have already doubled. Tata Nexon EV has the largest share in the segment as it sold more than 3,800 units then there was MG ZS EV that clocked around 1,500 units.

However, now the most affordable electric vehicle in India is the Tigor EV. It is being sold in three variants. There is XE, XM and XZ Plus. The XE is the base variant that costs Rs. 11.99 lakhs then there is XM that is priced at Rs. 12.49 lakhs and the top-end variant is XZ Plus that costs Rs. 12.99 lakhs ex-showroom. You can also get the XZ Plus with a dual-tone paint scheme by paying Rs. 15, 000 more. The Tigor EV is powered by a 26 kWh battery pack. It produces 74.7 PS of max power and 170 Nm of peak torque. ARAI says that Tigor EV should deliver 306 km of driving range. However, in real-world conditions, you should expect it to deliver close to 150 km to 200 km. So, the range is enough for daily city commutes. We have already driven the Tigor EV. You can click here to read the full review.

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