2:45The other question about Harrier EV is: what was your thinking when planning its pricing?
3:37Do you expect more competition or are you more excited? What is your expectation?
4:50How confident are you that you will deliver something around that?
6:55Do you think you want to export it in big numbers – maybe to Europe – where Tata Motors could be a big competition, especially as China is exporting and capturing market share?
8:11What are you doing to improve service levels across the dealership network?
Hello and welcome to NDTV Auto. Tata Motors has launched its much-awaited Harrier EV and I have with me Shailesh Chandra. Thank you so much for joining us today. First question: big launch, congratulations. What are your expectations from Harrier EV? Who is the customer for Harrier EV?
Yeah, I think when we were conceiving Harrier EV, first what was in mind was this is going to be another EV, so what should be the range and specs. But we also started understanding that this is a segment where we can overcome all barriers of electric vehicles and deliver a superior experience in the high SUV segment. High SUVs are typically bought by upgraders or first-time buyers like young professionals and entrepreneurs. We thought we could deliver a far superior experience in performance, ride comfort, and new tech comparable to luxury segments. That was the idea behind Harrier EV. I expect that unlike past EVs with residual barriers, this one overcomes range barrier with 500 km plus range, 75 kWh battery, high charging speeds, so all 25,000 customers should be thinking about it.
The other question about Harrier EV is: what was your thinking when planning its pricing? Because that's where those 20,000 customers will actually decide.
You're absolutely right. When I say no barriers, the big three are price, range, and charging time. Price is one we focused on, bringing parity with an automatic ICE car in this segment. Our pricing is pretty much in line with that, to overcome that barrier.
Okay. With Harrier EV, till now you had more mass market EVs, but this is clearly premium. Do you expect more competition or are you more excited? What is your expectation?
As I said earlier, given that this overcomes the range barrier – 500 km plus – and the median intercity drive in India is 180 km, 90% of customers do less than 400 km. So this gives comfort to shift to EVs. Anyone considering a car above 20 lakh should consider this with superior features like automatic parking and summon mode.
One point is always the range – any EV buyer thinks about it. You say 500 km, but the experience of many customers across the world is that what's promised is not delivered. How confident are you that you will deliver something around that?
We have the benefit of having sold over 200,000 vehicles and data on driving patterns and range in different temperatures. We developed a measure called C75 – 75 percentile of customers achieve a certain range. Our accuracy is over 90%. We are confident the real range is around 480 to 505 km. With 8 billion kilometers of data, we are optimistic.
Harrier EV is packed with features and great range. Do you think you want to export it in big numbers – maybe to Europe – where Tata Motors could be a big competition, especially as China is exporting and capturing market share?
Absolutely. But our current focus is to establish the car in India. We need to meet regulatory requirements. The UK is an obvious developed market since it's right-hand drive. We might look at other markets where EVs are doing well, but that's at a later date.
Now about your products and services – post-sales service. Comments we get about Tata Motors is that products are great but after-sales service is a pain point. What are you doing to improve service levels across the dealership network?
Customer experience is top priority. There were issues in the last few years, but significant improvement has happened. We grew 4.5 times from 4% to 14% market share, and service capacity didn't keep up in some cities. In the last year, we added nearly 1,300 service bays, increased monthly service flow from 1.5 lakh to 4.5 lakh. We identified 21 hotspot cities; 17 are resolved, 4 more in the next few months. We've modernized workshops, used AI for diagnostics, set up technical help desks, and improved roadside assistance with real-time tracking. We have the aspiration to become the best.
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