We will go for a price increase in the coming weeks: Tata Motors’Shailesh Chandra

It is, but product development takes that much time. We wanted to introduce the concept slightly early for two reasons. One, we wanted to make people understand and get a glimpse of the sequence of electric vehicle and what it would mean from Generation 1 to Generation 3. Two, we could have showcased it in the Auto Expo but we wanted to do it earlier in order to get inputs during the period. I can tweak the product a bit depending on what the market requires. 

This is a new concept which is trending as a very aspirational body style in the West. Coupe was a two-door concept in sports vehicles and in the last 5-6 years it came in the luxury segment which created this aspiration of a coupe body style. Now we are seeing mainstream OEMs globally going for a coupe. We wanted to test this in the Indian market which is seeing very high growth in SUVs. With this unveiling we are familiarising the market with such a body style. 

We had showcased the Altroz EV at the Geneva Motor Show. At that time, we had a certain timeline in our mind with a certain design concept. As we launched the Nexon EV and we saw the response it got, we started seeing the need of the market with regards to the drive range and performance, we decided to re-sequence the 10 products. Therefore, the Altroz EV got a push ahead on the timeline. We are working on it. We are following the sequence. 

Today, the volumes have not got limited due to capacity. It is because of semiconductor shortage. There is further opportunity of debottlenecking at the three plants and once this is done, we can increase our capacity by another 20-25 percent. We will continue to focus of the supply chain, especially semiconductors. We are working on alternatives. 

There is not only a consistent increase in the commodity prices but semiconductor prices as well. Every manufacturer is going for open market buys which is becoming very costly. This is an additional 50 bps-200 bps of our revenue, it is an additional cost. Steel price is rising and precious metals were anyway up. We will go for a price increase in the coming four weeks.  

We have to utilise the fund that has been infused. The tranche is milestone based. Once we clear the milestone in the coming months, the second tranche will also come in. We had to cross certain milestones for the first tranche which has been completed. 

We are still not in a hurry. We are able to bring the right technology and the product doing good but there are certain areas where partners can become a force multiplier. When that kind of a situation comes, we will actively look for that but today there is nothing of that nature visible. There are desperate times when you need a partner but we are not in that situation. We are just waiting for a good opportunity for come along. 

We said that we would invest ₹15,000 crore over five years. We will see how we can do this; it can be done through internal accruals or borrowings. 

Absolutely, we are giving slightly greater preference to EVs also because we are aligning our buyers where the waiting list is high and electric has one of the top waiting lists.