India's largest electric carmaker Tata Motors plans to leverage synergies between electric vehicles and rooftop solar to drive EV adoption in up-country towns and cities.

In an investor presentation, Tata Motors says it will cross-promote rooftop solar and EVs for customers. "We will create a bundled offering for EV & RTS to provide tangible financial benefits to customers," the presentation says.

"We will capture benefits from PM Surya Ghar Yojana to drive adoption in upcountry markets," it adds.

About 10-15% of Tata Motors' EV customers had rooftop solar in FY24. The automaker plans to increase this share to 50% by 2030.

The plan to cut reliance on fossil fuels for home charging of EVs comes as naysayers argue that it's the source of electricity that really matters and not zero tailpipe emissions offered by EVs.

Tata Motors plans to invest ₹16,000 crore to ₹18,000 crore on electric vehicles between 2024-25 and FY30, according to the automaker's investor presentation. The carmaker plans to open more EV-exclusive showrooms to showcase its wide range of electric cars and overcome limited display space at ICE outlets.

After opening two EV showrooms in Gurugram in December last year, Tata Motors has identified around 50 cities with high growth potential for launching of EV-exclusive showrooms in a phased manner over the next 24 months.

With four EV models in its portfolio, Tata Motors cornered 73% share of the EV market in India in FY24. The carmaker will launch two new EVs — Curvv EV and Harrier EV — this fiscal and two more — Sierra EV and Avinya — in FY26.

But lack of charging infrastructure remains the biggest bugbear for EV buyers. Tata Motors says its upcoming EVs will address this key barrier by offering higher range models and faster charging. Tata Motors is also developing an EV charging ecosystem with the help of Tata Power and other charge point operators.

Tata says prices of EVs and their ICE equivalent models are expected to converge in the future as emission norms become more stringent for ICE vehicles while production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme benefits, falling battery prices and increased localisation of EV components bring down EV prices. The company also expects its EV division to become EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation ) breakeven by 2025-26.

Tata Motors aims to increase its passenger vehicle market share to 18-20% by growing faster than the industry and leveraging new model launches and powertrain shifts towards CNG and EVs. In FY24, Tata was India’s third largest carmaker with 14% share. It is targeting 16% share by FY27 with the launch of Curvv and Sierra.

The carmaker says it will strengthen its multi-powertrain strategy to maximise on growing powertrains. EV penetration in Tata Motors’ portfolio increased to 13% in FY24 from 9% in FY23 while CNG penetration rose to 16% in FY24 from 8% in the previous fiscal. In terms of volumes, CNG and EV sales increased by 120% and 48% year-on-year in FY24.

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