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Tata Motors, the country’s largest electric car seller, on Tuesday announced deep cuts to prices of electric versions of Nexon SUV and Tiago mini. While the steepest reduction of Rs 1.2 lakh has been made on the Nexon EV (entry variant priced at Rs 14.5 lakh, ex-showroom), Tiago will see a price reduction of up to Rs 70,000 with the base model now priced at Rs 8 lakh. Tata said it is passing on “battery price reduction benefits” to customers. “Battery costs constitute a substantial part of the overall cost of an EV,” said Vivek Srivatsa, chief commercial officer of Tata’s passenger car electric mobility division.
EV cos cut prices on battery cost reduction, localisation
Battery costs constitute a substantial part of the overall cost of an EV. With battery cell prices having softened in the recent past and considering their potential reduction in the foreseeable future, we have chosen to proactively pass on the resulting benefits directly to customers,” said Vivek Srivatsa, chief commercial officer of Tata’s passenger car electric mobility division.
With this, the annual cost to run, for example, an electric Nexon — for around 15,000 km — will work out to Rs 15,000, compared with Rs 96,021 for the model’s diesel variant, and Rs 1.2 lakh for petrol (factored in for Delhi, where diesel is priced at around Rs 90 a litre, and petrol at Rs 97, and EV per unit charge is Rs 10). This means that one can recover the slightly additional cost for buying an EV (compared to a petrol) in just under one year. The on-road price of petrol Nexon is 14.2 lakh, while electric is at Rs 15.1 lakh, due to subsidised registration cost for green cars. The diesel variant already costs more than electric with an on-road price of Rs 15.4 lakh, and stands to lose from Day One. Srivatsa said Tata Motors aims to accelerate the “mainstream adoption of EVs” through the measure.
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When it comes to MG Motor, the company had cut the ex-showroom price of its Comet mini electric by Rs 1 lakh after which the car is priced at Rs 7 lakh now. On the bigger ZS green SUV, it had introduced an all-new lower-priced entry variant at Rs 19 lakh against the previous starting price of 22 lakh.
“ This has been made possible due to increased localisation, long-term freight contracts, streamlined logistics, supply chain improvement, and long-term key commodities cost rationalisation,” said Gaurav Gupta, deputy MD of MG Motor India.