You would often not know how long ago the pilot program to develop a brand-new car is initiated until the final production version appears in the market.
We suggest you not be surprised to hear that the first EV from Tata Motors for not a Nexon but an Indica! Yes, remember the first completely Made-in-India passenger hatchback? Thousands of miles away in Coventry, UK, the Tata Motors European Technical Centre (TMETC) was amidst establishing infrastructure for the production of electric cars based on the Indica. At the time, the EV industry was in its infancy and most carmakers were still figuring out the strategy to transition from Internal Combustion Engines to Electric Cars.
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Tata Motor’s First EV Was An Indica
The EV technology development at TMETC commenced back in 2006 with an R&D project that had the Indica as the test car. However, the encouraging results of this project led to the creation of an extended R&D project. The EV industry was being promoted via various incentives and benefits from the UK government from 2008 to 2010. That turned this project into a full-fledged product development programme with dedicated departments for design, validation, engineering, manufacturing and assembly. The project was named the Vista EV project.
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Various departments under this project included the Battery and Battery Management System (BMS), electrical drivetrain partner (Canadian supplier), ancillaries and HVAC partners, packaging companies, safety integration, validation, and homologation among others. These were the main challenges at the time that the division was working on. After working on these issues, it won 2 prizes in the 2010 RAC Low Carbon Vehicle Challenge. This competition was organised by a US-based X-PRIZE from Brighton to London.
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2nd and 3rd Generation Tata EVs in Pipeline
It won’t be inaccurate to say that the result that we experience today in the form of Tata Nexon EV wouldn’t have been possible without that initiative back in 2006. This is just one example to showcase how any new technology is incepted years before its gets popular. It has always been this way in the automobile world. So, technically, we could consider the humble Tata Indica the first EV from Tata Motors. It very well laid the foundation for the company that Tata is today. Tata Motors have come a long way into the EV era. It has already announced the 2nd (CURVV) and 3rd generation (Avinya) products that will compete on a global scale.
