With the spotlight on green fuel at the recently concluded Auto Expo 2023, the country’s largest commercial vehicle maker was not reticent about showcasing new concept vehicles in the electric and hydrogen propulsion range. Girish Wagh, Tata Motors’ Executive Director, spoke with DH’s Prathik Desai on the challenges ahead in transitioning the giant’s product portfolio to cleaner fuel technologies.
What is Tata Motors’ roadmap to transition towards a cleaner product portfolio?
Since our product range is very wide - ranging from the smallest Tata Ace to the biggest 55-tonne vehicle in goods transportation, and the smallest 10-seater to 55-seater in passenger – we have to work on the entire range. They (new unveils and concepts) have been selected very thoughtfully as to which technology is likely to be there for which product in the long term. In the immediate term, the focus will be more on battery electric (vehicles) in the last-mile distribution and buses. And, in other commercial vehicles, there will be CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and maybe in some specific applications, LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) may be used. So, that is our immediate focus and we are ready for that.
When it comes to hydrogen-based fuel technologies, what are the biggest challenges India faces right now and how can we address them?
This is a new field for us. I think the government has come up with a hydrogen mission and that should promote manufacturing and production (of hydrogen), storage, transmission, distribution and retail. So, this appears to be a challenge as of now but should be overcome with the focus of the government.
Besides government support, what is the role that industry can play in speeding up the transition to hydrogen-based fuel tech?
The role that automotive OEMs will play is to ensure that we are ready with the products that are commercially viable in the auto industry. I think the rest of the things, in terms of infrastructure and cost of hydrogen, should (fulfil) the requirement once the scale is reached. Maybe in the pilot phase, the way the government has incentivised battery-electric (vehicles), I presume that a similar kind of support will be provided for hydrogen, too, which will help (in) the pilot and initial penetration of this technology.
You announced new launches across fuel types at the Auto Expo. What is the future of commercial vehicles looking like in India and at Tata Motors?
As a country, the target which has been taken to be net zero greenhouse gas emissions is by 2070. To support that, we have decided that at Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles, we will be net zero by 2045. This will impact our product portfolio as well as our operations. We have made a detailed roadmap of the product portfolio and usage of renewable energy in our operations. Coming to the product portfolio, it appears that our country will have a very diversified energy mix. So, you will have conventional fuels, natural gas, flex-fuel, biofuel, battery electric and hydrogen FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicle). So, it becomes important that we have to work on all the technologies.