MUMBAI
:
Tata Motors will maintain its leadership in the electric cars segment of India’s automobile market, and is not perturbed by launches by other carmakers, managing director Shailesh Chandra said on Thursday.
His comments come on the back of the automaker’s faltering market share in the electric vehicle (EV) space and competition heating up.
“Now you’re seeing so many cars getting launched in a market of 10,000 cars (sold) in a month simultaneously,” Chandra said. “When a new car gets launched, initial demand spurts two to three times that of steady-state demand. So there’s a lot of noise right now,” he said, adding that one must wait and watch what happens when the demand stabilises.
“Focus has to be on the fundamentals of what it takes to be a leader…we are very confident of sustaining that leadership position,” he said. He was speaking to reporters on Thursday at an event to announce the automaker’s collaborative initiatives to boost charging infrastructure.
Chandra said that the company has been focusing on five fundamentals to maintain its leadership. This includes having the widest portfolio at different price points, offering aspirational features, focusing on reliability and customer experience, and expanding to new markets.
Tata Motors had an early-mover advantage in India’s EV market. Yet, in the past ten months, its EV sales declined 11% year-on-year, crimping its market share, wholesale data shared by the company showed. Between April 2024 and January 2025, it sold a total of 53,580 EVs. In January, sales fell a sharp 25% year-on-year to 5,240 units, bringing its market share from over 70% last fiscal year to less than 65% now.
Growing competition from the likes of JSW MG Motor India, whose Windsor EV became a best-seller soon after deliveries began in October, and Mahindra & Mahindra, and new line-ups by rival carmakers for 2025 have been eating into Tata Motors’ market share.
Boosting charging infrastructure
Despite a global EV slowdown, sales in India continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace. Yet, most leading automakers in India are betting in earnest on the EV market, with a majority of new launches announced at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo last month being electric vehicles.
However, to boost EV sales, charging infrastructure needs to improve. “Charging had to be holistically solved even for the early adopters who were really enthusiasts,” Balaje Rajan, chief strategic officer at Tata Motors, said. Among those consumers who have not considered buying an EV, a major deterrent has been the lack of charging infrastructure, Chandra noted.
To address this, and build on its initiatives on boosting charging infrastructure, Tata Motors announced setting up 500 ‘mega chargers’ in the next twelve months. These public charging points will be set up in collaboration with four charging point operators (CPOs)– Tata Power, Zeon, Statiq and Charge Zone, and will have super fast charging points of 120 kilowatt.
The automaker is targeting micro markets in top metros that have high EV penetration like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi, and some key national highways to set up the charging points. The charging points will be available to users of all electric cars, although priority access will be given to Tata EV owners.
The company declined to share how much it is investing in setting up the charging points, and the split in investment and revenue with the CPOs.
The automaker also said that it plans to add 4 lakh charging points across the country by 2027. It also plans to pilot a unified payments wallet for seamless payment transactions at the charging points.