Visiting India's First Electric Car Showroom: Tata EV Store In Pictures

For Tata Motors, 2023 turned out to be a year of consolidating its position as India's top electric car manufacturer. Along with the commencement of deliveries of its most affordable electric car, the Tiago EV, the company also rolled out a significant overhaul for its best-selling battery-powered offering, the Nexon EV, and crossed the 1 lakh units sales milestone. As the new year begins, Tata has become the first carmaker in India to set up a dedicated retail channel for its electric vehicle lineup, and carandbike was invited to the media preview of the first Tata ‘EV Store’.

Also Read: Tata Motors Unveils First Dedicated EV Dealerships In Gurugram

Tata has set off on its dedicated EV outlet journey by establishing two EV stores to cater to customers from the Delhi-NCR region. These stores are located in Gurugram.

Each Tata EV store is a car showroom, but also has a dedicated service facility, and also offers a handful of charging options for existing Tata EV owners.

The store is home to the three private-use electric cars in Tata's present portfolio – the Tiago EV, Tigor EV and Nexon EV. Each outlet employs decor and furniture that is either recycled or recyclable, along with energy-efficient LED lighting and potted plants.

Inside, the showroom has a full-size car configurator screen that provides a 360-degree display of the car inside and out, so customers can view the exact spec they'd like for their vehicle. Also displayed here is the variant-wise price, and customers can scan a QR code to capture the spec they wish to order and share it with the dealer.

Also Read: Upcoming Tata Sierra EV Design Previewed In Patent Image

Another screen in the showroom houses a calculator to capture cost, energy and emission savings over the vehicle's ownership period. This screen also has a trip planner function, which lets one map a route to a destination and view all the EV chargers available en route. However, at this time, the chargers listed do not display their real-time availability.

A welcome addition in the EV store is what Tata calls the ‘charging wall’. This area will be used to educate first-time EV buyers on how they can safely use a standard wall socket to charge their vehicle, as well as on using the AC fast charger.

There's a corner dedicated to colour choices for each EV on sale, with spheres wearing the exact paint used on the cars to give customers a sense of what the colour will look like in real life.

Tata has installed an artistic rendition of the map of Gurugram, which highlights points of interest that potential customers may want to visit or explore in their vehicles.

A 60 kW, dual-gun DC fast-charger will be present at every Tata EV store, along with the wall-mounted 7.2 kW AC fast charger. Tata also intends to weave the fast-charger into the test drive experience to let customers have a first-hand experience of what it's like to fast-charge a vehicle in real-world use.

The stores in Gurugram will be opened on January 7, 2024. By 2025, Tata Motors plans to have 2-3 such outlets in every city where EV penetration is high. These are expected to include Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Kochi, among a few other locations. Having these stores up and running will be important, as Tata Motors is already witnessing EVs make a substantial contribution to its business (EVs constitute 20 per cent of Tata's total revenues) and plans to expand its portfolio to 10 models in the next two years.