ACEing Commercial EVs

TATA MOTORS LTD. HAS COMMERCIALISED THE FIRST ELECTRIC, FOUR-WHEELED CARGO SMALL COMMERCIAL VEHICLE. ASHISH BHATIA LOOKS AT THE BROADER STRATEGY BEHIND THE ELECTRIFICATION OF A LEGACY MODEL.

- ASHISH BHATIA

It was a busy span of one week in particular at the Tata Group of Companies. Known to have synergised for the Group's electrification drive, on the passenger vehicle front, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM) globally unveiled a futuristic concept, a pure electric vehicle on its third generation (Gen 3) architecture. This was followed by the Commercial Vehicle Business Unit (CVBU) at Tata Motors Ltd. succeeding at creating nostalgia when it opted to electrify its mass selling, legacy model, the Tata Ace Small Commercial Vehicle (SCV). With the "Chota Hathi", it has embarked on the electrification journey of four-wheeler goods carriers. It is geared to offer its fleet customers a complete transport solution. The Tata Ace EV launch sans a price declaration, due for an announcement at the time of its customer deliveries had the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) draw in leading e-commerce giants among Tata Motors Dealers. The former (e-commerce giants) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on stage to seal the deal of making the Ace EV a part of their fleets. Most, customers of the erstwhile Ace. To fulfil their vision of net-zero emissions, in turn, the sum of the all the signed MoUs populated the Ace EV order book with 39,000 bookings. Tata Motors deemed the bookings from Amazon, BigBasket, City Link, DOT, Flipkart, Lets Transport, MoEVing and Yelo EV as a stamp of market acceptance before a single unit is delivered. "We are much encouraged with the support and response received from our e-commerce customers, with whom we begin this journey of zeroemission cargo mobility," expressed Girish Wagh, Executive Director, at Tata Motors Ltd.