In a bid to eliminate as many hurdles separating potential electric vehicle (EV) buyers from pulling the trigger on a purchase, Tata Motors announced its Open Collaboration 2.0 initiative in Mumbai, under which it will expand EV charging infrastructure with 120 kW ‘Mega Charger’ setups, operated by leading charge point operators. However, tucked away within the initiative are two more steps which promise to solve real-world hassles involved with EV charging – Tata will soon roll out a mobile EV charging service, and offer users the option to make payments via the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) at community chargers. The on-demand mobile charging service will be introduced in two Indian cities as a pilot project, confirmed a senior Tata Motors official.
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“Delhi and Mumbai will be the two cities we begin our mobile EV charging pilot in”, said Balaje Rajan, Chief Strategy Officer at Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM), in an interaction with carandbike. Rajan explained that the company anticipates this to be a service availed by those who find themselves needing a “top-up” charge on an unplanned journey, and not customers looking for a full battery charge, as the remote charging service will likely be far more expensive than regular public charging.
“The utility of having [a mobile charging service] is when you drive down for a meeting or take any other unplanned trip for which you need charging. We are in the process of closing out the delivery for this internally, and it'll probably take another couple of months. The service is for a top-up use case, not a full battery charge use case, because the unit economics of [mobile EV charging] will mean this won’t really be the cheapest option compared to even regular public charging”, Rajan told carandbike.
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Another roadblock that Tata is aiming to clear under Open Collaboration 2.0 is one related to paying for EV charging. At present, making payments for public EV charging is possible mainly through prepaid digital wallets – built into a charge point operator’s mobile app – that need to be pre-loaded with money. However, with UPI usage across the country increasing rapidly, Tata Motors is targeting adding this payment option to its community chargers in a bid to make life more convenient for users.
Over 4,000 community chargers were installed till 2024, as per a Tata Motors website.
While this option cannot yet be introduced at public chargers, Rajan explained how community chargers – set up inside apartment complexes across India – have more frequent and regular usage, and users can be given the choice to pay for charging after they have charged their EV.
“Community chargers have very different user economics because of the utilisation factor compared to public charging. With long-term residents of a community who are registered – and use a community charger multiple times a week – we can ensure the payments are post facto rather than in advance. We want to make sure that for people with any UPI app, it becomes very easy to transact, and that's why we believe it can work very easily in community charging without creating too many hassles,” Rajan told carandbike.
Tata Motors, in partnership with four CPOs – Tata Power, Zeon Charging, Statiq and Charge Zone, will set up 500 Mega Charger stations across India in the first phase. All stations, which will be operated by the CPOs, will have four parking bays, with two bays reserved for Tata EV owners. Rajan said Tata’s EV customers will receive a “20 to 25 per cent” discount on charging tariffs depending on the location.
