In the run up to the Tata Tiago.EV Facelift's launch on 28th May, we sat down for a conversation with Mr. Anand Kulkarni, Chief Product Officer, Head of HV Programs and Customer Service, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Ltd. Here's what transpired.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Good morning sir. So we are again connecting just after the Punch. First of all, I would like to tell you that we also owned Tiago.EV and did about 1 lakh kilometres in 3 years. So, it was a totally reliable car. You know, zero problems for 3 years. That is very rare for a car. It used to deliver about 220 kilometres. So, I am quite conversant with Tiago.EV. But one thing that we always wanted in our Tiago EV was more range. So, what is it this time? Will we be getting something significant with respect to the range?
Anand Kulkarni: Wonderful to hear your good experience with the Tiago, JP. Thanks for that compliment on the Tiago. So, JP, I think it was meant to be a car to be very reliable, and that is what it seems to have delivered to you. So, great to hear that. On the new car, we have focused on the use cases of our customers. And if we look at how our customers are using the cars, almost 80% of the people use it in the city, about 20% of the people use it outside of the cities, It is a great car to do errands around the city and also do some close-by neighbouring intercity drives. And therefore, what we have focused on is not necessarily on augmenting of the battery size per se, but augmenting charging speeds. And you would know from your usage that the Tiago.EV, the earlier Tiago.EV would take about 54-58 minutes, just under an hour to charge from 10% to 90%, or 10% to 80% kind of a number. But now we have augmented the charging speeds to be able to do it in half the time. So you will be able to go from 10% to 80%, 20% to 80% kind of a number in less than 30 minutes. And that's a huge augmentation and I don't need to tell you this. You have been a 100,000 kilometres user, so you will understand the benefit of this immediately.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Absolutely, sir. Because charging, that was one of my questions later about charging, but I think you have answered it right now.
Anand Kulkarni: Correct. And the second thing was, you know, we had a huge reception to the Tiago EV when it was launched. And I think you are a customer of that batch, the initial batch three years back, 2023. And, you know, people just love the format of the car. People just love the way that it moved around, the manoeuvrability, the dynamics, the stability and all these things. And the one anxiety which could have been solved was about how would the battery fare over an extended period of time. And therefore, we are now extending the lifetime warranty on the 24 kilowatt hour battery, the larger of the two batteries, we are going to extend a lifetime warranty to the first user, of course.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Okay. That's wonderful to hear.
Anand Kulkarni: Those two things, JP, faster charging and the lifetime warranty on the battery, I think allay all of the fears that the users of Tiago.EV had. And I think that's the single biggest enablement which we are giving to the car. Okay.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Great, sir. And one more question I have is about the battery - the 24 kilowatt battery. Are you going with prismatic cells or are you sticking to cylindrical?
Anand Kulkarni: No, we are still continuing to do the cylindrical cells, but in order to engage both the faster charging as well as the ability to guarantee the confidence and the assurance on the warranty, there are changes which have been done to the chemistry. And those chemical changes is what enables us to provide for these two additional benefits to our customers. And therefore, to that extent, it is not the same as in the first generation, but the cylindrical cells are geometrically the same. The chemistry still stays to be an LFP chemistry and the battery size still remains at 24 kilowatt hour.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: One more thing about Lifetime Battery Warranty. Since I think the Tiago is one of the most affordable cars to actually offer this feature, will it become a hygiene factor going forward, sir? I am asking again because with respect to EV adoption, this is one huge confidence building move that many manufacturers including you have started out with. So, what do you think? Is it going to become a hygiene factor going forward? Like say, we have six airbags now as a hygiene factor. So, are we going to have lifetime battery warranty across all the new EVs? What do you think from an industry perspective?
Anand Kulkarni: I do not and I cannot speak for others. I can speak for myself. Okay. I can speak for ourselves. And you would have also noticed that along with this lifetime warranty on the larger sized battery on the Tiago itself, we are now able to offer lifetime warranties on each of our models, whether it is the Harrier or whether it is the Tiago. Why should we do it? Because as the industry has moved, you know, we started our electrification journey six, seven, eight years back and there were early adopters. And we see now that the early adopters have started moving into early majority. There are a lot of people who are looking at electric cars as a serious option. And if therefore, we can give them this confidence of them being able to use this car on a longer term, on a longer basis, then I think we should do everything within our means to be able to give them that assurance. And therefore, whether it becomes a hygiene or not, whether somebody else also takes that same approach or not, is for time to tell. But we think that we as pioneers of electrification need to take this step forward in providing this assurance to people.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Wonderful. Great to hear, sir. Also, one more question is, is the motor the same or any updates there? Any changes in the motor apart from say, maybe more power and torque? Anything else?
Anand Kulkarni: Hardware wise, the motor is the same JP. However, there has been a lot of differences in terms of setting it up for efficiency, as well as setting it up for easy drivability within the city. You were there at the time of Punch EV and one of the things that all of you gave us a feedback on was how easy the throttle felt and how it was nice to drive it around the city. I think you will find the same DNA, the same spirit of the Punch EV also flowing into the calibration on this. So, there have been calibration changes. There have been some minor improvements for efficiencies and that's what are the changes that we have done. We have not touched the hardware for now.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Okay, and this is almost like an academic question, but I will still ask you. In engineering terms, what is the trade-off between adding a bigger battery to a small car? Because I just want to figure out if there is some sweet spot with respect to weight of the battery and the additional range it liberates. And of course, this obviously will relate to space management as well. So, what is your take on that?
Anand Kulkarni: So, the physical challenge of putting extra battery onto a small format car can be solved. I don't think there is a problem in answering to that question. But more than that engineering problem is a problem of use case and what is the expectations of the customer. Because if you give an oversized battery on a car that is used for routine jobs or for a specific use case, then it will just lead to a point of accessibility that pushes away some people and therefore you have to be really careful about what you do in this case. But from an engineering perspective, I think you can certainly build in extra battery capacity even on a car like Tiago. Now, when you do that, of course, you have to build the rest of the systems like braking system, like suspensions and the entire crash worthiness of the car in a way that it is still compatible. And again, that is an engineering problem that can be solved. But I don't think there is a problem there. So, there is no trade-off from an engineering perspective. The trade-off might be from a use case perspective of what the customer expects to do from this car.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: So, I think during the Punch.EV drive, you said that you can fit a battery larger than even 40 kilowatt. So, I think even with the Tiago, you can go for a larger battery. But again, you have not gone for it based on all these factors. So, is that correct, sir?
Anand Kulkarni: Yes, yes. So, engineering-wise, it is certainly possible to even go larger than this. But we have a choice. And we have a choice that is based on the use case and based on what customers are doing out of this car or this format of car. And therefore, that is where we are today.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: You have said that in 30 minutes, you can actually charge from 10 to 80 percent, which I think is phenomenal. And I think for city cars, it is more than enough considering how quickly fast-charging infrastructure is actually getting set up across the country. But now, what is the maximum charging speed in terms of actual speeds? 1C or 1.5C as of now for the facelifted Tiago on EV?
Anand Kulkarni: If I tell you that, you would actually be able to compute it. But nonetheless, it is today at 1.2C. So, you see, we were earlier at 0.7C on the car that we had done earlier. It is almost, almost, not exactly, but almost doubling of that speed. Which is, I think, a big thing. Because by this, even you can do some small intercity trips like Bombay, Pune, etc. Hey, by the way, JP, I sit in a place of privilege to be able to see exactly what is happening with the customers. And a lot of people are already doing this.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: See, we have done 1 lakh kilometres in 3 years, sir. We have taken it (Tiago.EV) for 300-400 kilometer drives also sometimes. So, I can totally get it. Only thing that we were missing was maybe a larger range. But because of the faster charging and the improved charging infrastructure compared to, say, last 3 years, I think more or less this, I think it will fit the overall picture.
Anand Kulkarni: Yes, absolutely right.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: And now, with respect to features, I think with, you know, a fairbit has been added to the Tiago EV. What is your favourite, which will actually make a difference to the buyer? What is your take on this, sir, for the new Tiago EV?
Anand Kulkarni: So, there are so many. There are so many changes that I really can talk about. So, the most important thing that a customer is going to certainly recognise and immediately feel is the instrument cluster that's gone wider and more capable, as well as the infotainment display that has become very modern, very sleek. And I think those are the two big changes that I love. But along with that, the seats have become wider, the thigh supports have improved. We've changed this platform to a very large extent to bring more modernity, more comfort, more convenience. So, those are the two things I really love on the inside. On the outside, the JP, the headlamps with their powerful beams and the new look, the new modern look is super. So, altogether, it gives a great energetic car vibe that I really love about.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: And now, finally, coming back to Tata's favourite thing, safety. I can see ISOFIX on the child seats of the new Tiago. So, is the 5-star rating loading? Because last time, so far, you've been at 4 stars with the Tiago, apart from the stable body. But are you going to do a 5-star this time?
Anand Kulkarni: So, we have designed the Tiago.EV to get to that level of capability. But obviously, I can't say, I can't answer that question in definitive terms unless we have a certification. So, we are going to apply for a certification and once we have that, we will certainly declare that. But yes, the car has been designed to be able to appear before and pass a 5-star test.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: And now, a final question. The Punch doesn't have rear AC vents, the new Punch that is. But the Tiago has rear AC vents. Because, you know, both cars are almost similarly sized in terms of cabin space, maybe the Punch has a higher volume because of the taller roof. So, what is the logic?
Anand Kulkarni: So, the logic is, you have shorter drives on the Tiago. It's a city drive. And therefore, you want to cool down the cabin very, very quickly. Whereas, you do longer drives on the Punch. But I think, in future, we should also look at the Punch getting a rear vent. And we will take this feedback and move forward.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: All right. So, that's pretty much it. I wish you the very best for the new Tiago. And as an old owner of the Tiago EV, I am looking forward to actually catching the car when I test drive it, maybe three or four days down the line. So, thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much for your time.
Anand Kulkarni: So, I will either see you tomorrow or I will see you in Bangalore.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: In Bangalore, sir. Because tomorrow, Neeraj is coming. Tomorrow, I have a drive with the Honda City Hybrid. So, that is the reason, Neeraj is coming tomorrow to Gurgaon.
Anand Kulkarni: Okay, great. All the best with that drive and look forward to catching up with you in Bangalore. Thank you. Take care, JP.
Jayaprashanth Mohanram: Bye. Have a good day.