Tata Technologies Ltd. has emerged as a leading end-to-end developer of electric vehicles (EVs) for global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and start-ups, a top executive said.
“We reinvented the company to be ready for the EV play,” said Anand Bhade, president, Asia Pacific, Tata Technologies. “The company was an automotive domain expert since inception. We reinvented ourselves to be ready for the mobility transformation wave that was happening around the world,” Mr. Bhade said in an interview.
“We are not only ready, but are successful in delivering a fully-built electric SUV. Now, we have a global footprint and [are] currently developing more than 11 EV projects around the world,” he added. In 2014, when the company saw a lot of disruption happening, it decided to focus on the EV space in China, banking on its years of expertise, he said.
China story
The company’s China story started in 2015, when it bagged a contact from a start-up Next EV, now known as NIO, to develop a full EV from scratch.
“That was our entry point. In 32 months, we delivered a complete EV called ES8, a full aluminium body seven-seater battery operated SUV,” he said.
This vehicle, unveiled in Beijing last December, is now available for sales, providing enough credibility to the firm to bag many EV projects across the globe.
“It proved that here is a Tata group company which has capability of doing end-to-end EV. That created a lot of pull in the China market. Now, we have five customers there, including mainstream OEMs. We are also developing a complete EV sports car for a customer in Japan,” Mr. Bhade added.
Though the company is providing solutions to Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover, its engagement with non-Tata customers was more, Mr. Bhade said. He declined to divulge any more details on the company’s engagement with customers in the EV space in India.
“We want to do something more impactful in India. But it all depends on regulations. We are in active negotiations with customers in India,” he added. Starting with a $30 million revenue, Tata Technologies has now grown to be a $417 million company with 8,500 people in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
In the past years, the company was growing at a CAGR of 12-13%, but with more work coming in the EV space, it plans to grow at 16-17% in the next three years.
“In the next four to five years, there is enough headroom to grow. What we are now seeing in EV is the just the tip of the iceberg. When the electric fever catches up in EU, U.K. and U.S., our company will have great future. And India has still not started,” Mr. Bhade said.
“In 1997 when Mr.Ratan Tata himself started this company he had asked us not do everything for everybody. I as young man was standing next to him. He said be very focus on very few things. Be the world’s design and innovation house and focus on manufacturing. And we took that advice to heart seriously and here we are,” Mr. Bhade said.
