While the headline of today has been 17 different commercial vehicles loans by Tata, but India firsts for Autocar Professional is a bigger headline. To discuss the same with me is Girish Wagh. This is Muly Yudvir Singh for Autocar Professional. Welcome, seven trucks, right? That has been a headline so far, but there have been many India firsts today. Could you throw some light on that first?
Yes. So I think the first thing that I would like to mention is the safety theme, and I believe that this is kind of our contribution to the driving community, driver community. So our engineers actually studied the pattern of accidents in the country and what we can do, and we realized that if we make all our truck cabins meet the stringent European regulation EC29, R29 sorry, then we should be providing the required survival space for the driver in case of an unfortunate incident. So today we have introduced all our truck cabins meeting that safety regulation. This is something we have done proactively and we will be at marginal or no price impact or cost impact for the customer. We believe that this is something we should do for the driver. The second thing we have done today is how to improve the profitability of the fleet owner, and there we have looked at both multi-axle trucks and tractors. We have come up with, in multi-axle trucks, an improvement in payload of existing vehicles with a very innovative design of the tandem axle and suspension, increasing payload by around 1.8 tons on four vehicles. The topline improvement for the fleet owner is significant. Next, in the heavy commercial vehicle category with the 6.7 liter Cummins engine, we worked on improved engine thermodynamics, cabin aerodynamics, and software calibration to give up to 7 to 8% fuel efficiency improvement. This increase in payload and fuel efficiency will improve profitability for the fleet owner.
Next, what we've done is there has been a lot of demand in the ILMC segment of 7 to 19 tons for e-commerce, auto sector, fruits and vegetables, where long distance, lower turnaround time, and uninterrupted travel are required. We have come up with a new cabin, Azura, and a new engine for improved fuel efficiency and uninterrupted performance over long distances. In heavy-duty deep mining tippers, we were not present with a good offering, so we have launched a 35 ton deep mining tipper with the first ever 8.5 liter engine in India, producing 1,800 Newton meters from Cummins. It also comes with a 12-speed AMT automated manual transmission from Cummins Eaton GV, another first for deep mining tippers. This will make deep mining tipping operations easier, increase trips, and improve productivity. Lastly, we have a full range of electric trucks from 7 to 55 tons. The story behind it is that electrification is not easy, with many apprehensions and challenges. We have worked closely with customers in end-use sectors like steel, cement, port, chemicals, e-commerce, and auto components. Using those insights, we developed a complete intelligent modular electric vehicle architecture with modular battery packs, changeable wheelbases and tonnage points, and e-axles, another first to improve localization and energy efficiency. We have five electric trucks: 7, 9, 12, 28, and 55 tons, already deployed for pilots, accumulating over 350,000 km cumulatively. With this confidence, along with annual maintenance contracts, financing solutions, and charging infrastructure, we can support decarbonization even in heavy-duty trucks.
Interesting. So 8.5 liter engine, improved emissions, improved mileage, improved weight, improved load carrying capacity. Does this signal that we, the Tata Motors commercial vehicles unit, is already BS7 ready?
I think it is a matter of time that the country starts moving towards BS7, but your question is in the right direction. These new engines we have launched today, one in heavy commercial vehicles and one in intermediate medium commercial vehicles, are package protected for the next generation emission norms. Since we have invested in new engines, it takes care of at least 10 years of horizon, not just tailpipe emissions but the decarbonization journey which will not go directly to electric. It has to be through technology agnostic platforms. IC engines will continue for some time, so CO2 reduction in existing IC engines is also important, which is why we have invested in these two new engines.
Interesting. Also, when you mentioned European crash standards and we've spoken about EVs and other stuff, are we going to explore more international markets especially because ICO may soon come into picture?
Certainly. We believe almost every market is maturing, each at a different stage. Things like safety will get accepted in all markets. Whatever we launched today, we'll see how to leverage these products for international markets. Regarding AECO, it is still under regulatory approval. We are looking at it, and as we've said before, we have a very complementary product portfolio and markets. Once the process is completed, we will initiate discussions on leveraging this complementarity to see if our pricing, just below the VEO range, can be used in common markets.
