Join in as Shailesh Chandra, MD & CEO, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, shares key insights on the current state of the entry-level hatchback car in India. Talking about the 2026 Tata Tiago and Tiago.ev facelift models, Shailesh Chandra highlights the importance of hatchbacks and their demand and how Tata Motors plans to democratise electric vehicles in the country with its new Tiago.ev model.
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0:00 Introduction: Shailesh Chandra Intervie...
What Shailesh Chandra said
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Shailesh Chandra, Managing Director and CEO of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, discussed the launch of the 2026 Tata Tiago facelift. He attributed the declining hatchback segment share to a lack of updates, contrasting it with SUVs, and said the new Tiago brings modern design, features like a 360-degree camera and blind spot monitoring, and democratized safety with six airbags and electronic stability program. He noted the price remains largely unchanged, with EV prices reduced, and introduced lifetime warranty and faster charging for the EV. Chandra projected Tiago sales could double, with EV mix rising from 25% to 35%. He highlighted that hatchbacks have stabilized at 21-22% of industry volume, and with India's market growing from 4.7 million to potentially 6.5 million units, hatches could grow in volume. He cited car inflation at 3-3.5% versus 9.5% personal disposable income growth, explaining consumer preference for premium cars. He emphasized the EV's entry price matches a petrol manual, with running costs of 2.4 rupees per kilometer.
Key takeaways
Tiago sales could double with the facelift, and EV mix should rise from 25% to 35%.
Hatchback segment share stabilized at 21-22% of industry volume, offering growth if updated.
Car inflation at 3-3.5% versus 9.5% income growth drives premiumization.
3:25But from a consumer insight point of view, where do you see the demand moving towards between the petrol, CNG and EV in the future?
4:13So on that same train of thought, where do you think the demand for the hatchback segment is right now, where does it need to be and where do you see it going?
6:14Any other insights about the new car that you would like to share with the time driver audience?
Welcome back to the show viewers and it has been a really exciting day because Tata Motors has just launched the Thiago facelift hatchback. But more important than that we have with us Mr. Shailesh Chandra who will be sharing key insights on the car and other aspects as well. Welcome to the show sir. First of all, congratulations on the successful launch of the new Thiago and sir, right off the bat I would like to ask you with the new launch and in such an important segment what are the key insights and trends that you are seeing in the hatchback segment right now.
The biggest insight that we had is that one explanation of the declining trend of hatches as a percentage of total industry volume was a lack of updates. While all the SUVs or slightly expensive cars being launched are getting very good updates in terms of new tech, design change, interior comfort and convenience, you hardly see action in hatches. Although unlike what is generally happening in the hatch segment, we had been giving refreshes but we had to give more significant change in the modern experiences for Thiago to be comparable to what is happening in the world of SUVs. And that had been the insight which we took forward in rethinking and reinventing the new Thiago with a lot of modern elements. When you see the exteriors, the styling of the car. When you look at the in-cab experience, a lot of focus on comfort, convenience and modern design elements like dashboard. When you see it, it looks very sleek, modern, choice of fabrics, rear AC vent, a lot of new tech features like 360° camera, blind spot monitoring, wireless charger and so on. But most importantly, the philosophy of Tata Motors has been that safety needs to be democratized. Generally in this segment safety and accessibility are seen like either/or. We said it has to be and. We have further upgraded it. Six airbags, electronic stability program, use of high strength steel. So it is a much safer car now compared to an already safe car. And of course it comes now with the three variants: CNG, electric and petrol. While all these features have been brought in, it has come at not any major change in price, literally the same price. But in EVs actually the price has gone down. And the big change that we have given in the EV is the lifetime warranty and faster charging capability. So it's packaged in a very modern way without shifting the price positioning, and in EVs it has further democratized. And at the right time I would say because the growth of EV is immense in the last two to three months from a demand perspective.
So as you rightly mentioned, now the styling is there, the features are there, packaging is there, of course the multiple drivetrains including the petrol, CNG and EV are also there. But from a consumer insight point of view, where do you see the demand moving towards between the petrol, CNG and EV in the future?
Clearly, right now if I just see the demand pattern of the three powertrains in Thiago, it has been about 50% petrol, 25% each of CNG and electric. I think the demand pie will increase for us. I really believe that it can double of what numbers we were selling earlier versus what we can sell now. It can easily double. But the mix will definitely shift more towards electric. The 25% should hopefully move up to 35% kind of a number.
5 more exchanges in this transcript
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Chandra, S. (2026, June 2). 2026 Tata Tiago & Democratising EVs In India | Shailesh Chandra, Tata Motors Explains! | Times Drive [Interview transcript]. Times Drive. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1052259/
MLA
Shailesh Chandra. "2026 Tata Tiago & Democratising EVs In India | Shailesh Chandra, Tata Motors Explains! | Times Drive." Times Drive, 2 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1052259/.
BibTeX
@misc{chandra2026_1052259,
author = {Shailesh Chandra},
title = {2026 Tata Tiago \& Democratising EVs In India | Shailesh Chandra, Tata Motors Explains! | Times Drive},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Times Drive. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jun},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1052259/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
