Tata group gearing to launch 'battery company' in India

Nivedita Bangari

May 13

As part of its transition to being future-ready, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran stated on Wednesday that the group is creating the blueprint to start a "battery company" both in India and internationally.

Chandrasekaran also stated at the CII Business Summit 2022 that the group is "undergoing a huge change" to become future-ready and that the business will soon declare a group-wide aim to become carbon neutral.

"We are transforming our core businesses to be future-ready, a transition where we are tightly integrating or embedding digital, data, AI and sustainability at the core of the business…," he said.

While the group's existing businesses are being transformed, Chandrasekaran said the company has also expanded into new areas, citing the Tata Neu super app as an example of the company's preparation for an omnichannel consumer-facing ecosystem and the launch of a "very large scale precision manufacturing electronics company with global aspirations."

He further said, "We have launched a company for creating a 5G and beyond telecom gear for the global markets. We are preparing the blueprint to launch our battery company both in India and abroad." Chandrasekaran, however, did not elaborate on the details of the battery company.

Underlining the importance of sustainability, he said, "We have a group level agenda on sustainability, which we will be announcing shortly where we have a group-level goal towards becoming carbon neutral. At the same time, we will address the huge impact that we can create on the communities." Stressing that the group is into carbon capture, he said, "Water is a big theme across the group. Everyone, every company will not only become water neutral but we will go beyond that."

"Our auto firm has made a substantial transformation in passenger automobiles," "Our auto company has made a significant transition in passenger cars. In fact, our market shares have gone up because we made this transition. In commercial vehicles, we are looking at alternative energy, we are looking at hydrogen fuel cells. We are doing the same thing in Jaguar Land Rover."

Tata Motors, the automotive branch of the over USD 100 billion conglomerate, is the market leader in India for electric passenger vehicles, with models including the Nexon EV and Tigor EV.

It recently introduced the AVINYA electric concept, based on which new electric cars will have a range of over 500 kilometres. Tata Motors' commercial vehicles business has unveiled an all-electric version of its famous Ace small truck.

"We are doing the same thing in steel, not only in terms of recycling but also in terms of preparing a blueprint towards hydrogen," he added.

Chandrasekaran also stated that Tata Power, the group's power subsidiary, is actively investing in not only utility-scale renewables but also consumer renewables. When asked what could be added to the Tata brand, which is generally trusted with the group companies functioning well, he said it must become the driving performance and an aspirational one going forward.