Landmark Opportunity: Tata Motors Aims To Make Two Lakhs Electric Vehicles By 2026

Tata Motors will be investing Rs 2,000 crore in the Sanand based manufacturing facility in Gujarat previously owned by Ford India. Tata Motors Limited is an Indian multinational automotive Indian manufacturing company headquartered in Mumbai. It is part of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata is the Chairman Emeritus of the Tata Group, and Natarajan Chandrasekaran is the Chairman of Tata Motors. Tata Motors produces passenger cars, trucks, vans, coaches, buses, luxury cars, sports cars and construction equipment.

The announcement was not official; there were reports Tata Motors had acquired and had taken over the Ford India plant for an undisclosed amount. Tata Motors had acquired Ford India’s manufacturing facility based out of Sanand in Gujarat for an undisclosed amount.

Tata Motors would be investing an additional Rs 2,000 crore in the newly acquired facility. This homegrown car manufacturer intends to manufacture two lakh electric vehicles (EVs) by 2026 at the Sanand factory.

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Henry Ford the senior founded it on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand, and luxury cars under its Lincoln luxury brand. Ford India also owns a vehicle and engine manufacturing plant in Maraimalai Nagar in Tamil Nadu.

Tata Motors acquired Ford India’s plant as a part of this takeover; Tata Motors will not be laying off any of the existing employees of Ford in this facility. The facility has given employment to as many as 23,000 personnel either directly or indirectly. The company already owns a manufacturing facility in Sanand, built to manufacture Tata Nano.

The Ford India plant is just opposite the Tata Motors plant. This plant currently serves as a manufacturing hub for the brand’s EVs and other models like Tiago and Tigor. As of now, Tata Motors produces 10,000 EVs per year, at its existing Sanand based factory. This facility has an overall production capacity of 1.5 lakh units per annum. Let us recall Tata Motors was the first major automaker to enter Sanand with an investment of Rs 4,500 crore to build India’s most affordable car in the form of Nano.

Tata Motors had requested for concessions from the state government in the land transfer rate which was proposed to pay 20% of jantri rate on the land which translated to Rs 66 Crore. Ford was promised balanced eligible incentives till 2030, Tata Motors has also asked for this right.

Tata Motors has now received the nod from the state government. Earlier this year, both Tata Motors and Ford India submitted a consent proposal for transfer of ownership of the latter’s manufacturing plant to the former. The high-powered committee met recently and gave a nod to this proposal including concessions sought by Tata Motors as part of this deal. This proposed takeover is expected to become a major landmark in Electric Vehicles (EV) production in the country.

Tata Motors as an EV manufacturer Tata Motors is currently one of the largest EV manufacturers in the country with two mass market products in the form of Tigor EV and Nexon. In February 2022, the brand sold a total of 2,264 units of battery powered vehicles. The company recently previewed an upcoming Coupe Electric SUV in the form of Curvv Concept which is expected to go on sale by 2024.

Tata Motors was formerly known as Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company Ltd. It is a public limited company and trades in BSE, NSE, NYSE and others. Its core product is automobiles, luxury vehicles, commercial vehicles, automotive parts, pickup trucks and SUVs. Tata Motors was founded in 1945, as a locomotive manufacturer. It entered the commercial vehicle sector in 1954 after forming a joint venture with Daimler Benz of Germany. After years of dominating the commercial vehicle market in India, Tata Motors entered the passenger vehicle market in 1991 by launching the Tata Sierra, a sport utility vehicle based on the Tata Mobile platform. Tata subsequently launched the Tata Estate in 1992; a station wagon design based on the earlier Tata Mobile, the Tata Sumo in 1994, a 5-door SUV and the Tata Safari in 1998.

Tata Motors has vehicle assembly operations in India, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Thailand, Spain, and South Africa. It plans to establish plants in Turkey, Indonesia, and Eastern Europe.