Tata Motors CEO and MD Guenter Butschek on Tuesday said that industry would do a splendid job if only 20-25 per cent of new registrations in the country would be of electric vehicles by 2025. Speaking to Business Today, Butschek said Tata Motors has not decided on electric-only platform and it only plans platforms that can handle both electric and internal combustion engines.

On government's vision of 100 per cent electrification of public transport and 40 per cent of personal mobility by 2030, Butschek said, "It is huge challenge... I think from a vision point of view, from an aspiration point of view, it is a good timeline but in order to get even close to it, we need to draft and translate it in to a policy."

Butschek said Tata Tigor EV has a fully industrialised supply chain now. It has low voltage charging and the auto major is working on high voltage solution as well.

The challenge, Butschek said, will be to meet the demand of both conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) and electric vehicles, both of which would require big investments. "The more you invest in conventional powertrain, the longer the transition from ICE to EV is going to take."

In December, Tata Motors handed over the keys of the first set of the electric version of its compact sedan Tigor to EESL, a joint venture of power PSUs that is spearheading electrification of cars.

Tata Motors had bagged order from state-owned EESL to supply 350 electric cars, while rival Mahindra & Mahindra would supply 150 electric cars. The company has rolled out the first batch of electric version of its compact sedan Tigor from Sanand plant.



Butschek said except for the 10,000 car EESL tender and some small tenders of buses, electrification is right at the beginning in India at this point.

Tata Motors became the L1 bidder (lowest bidder) for the EESL order of 10,000 electric cars, by outbidding Mahindra by Rs 2.3 lakh, and will supply the bulk of the order to government of India during a period of two years.

Tata Motors is expected to showcase a global reveal of H5X(SUV) and X45X(hatchback) at the Auto Expo 2018. Both platforms are common tech platforms including future electric powertrains. H5X will hit market in a year's time whereas X45X is slated to hit the markets in 2019.

This year, the company's focus at the Auto Expo will be journey towards the future of integrated mobility solutions, outlining plans for the future of India's Smart Cities and its connected generation.