Putting at rest all speculation around a partnership with Tesla, Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran said last week that,“There is no dialogue with Tesla. With us, there is nothing,” Chandrasekaran told media as he spoke about the aggressive plans of Tata Motors and its British subsidiary Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) in the electric vehicles space. The Tata Sons chief said products under Tata Motors and JLR have been performing well, and there is no need for any outside partner at this point in time.
There had been widespread speculation in the media about an impending partnership between the Tata Group and Tesla as the latter is now entering the Indian market. The conjecture had also contributed to the spike in the share price of Tata Motors. But it had also moved up due to the strong performance of the company’s car business in India.
More fuel was added to the speculations when the official twitter handle of ‘Tata Motors Electric Mobility’ sent out a cheeky tweet on January 15, positively commenting on rumours of the Tesla partnership through the lyrics of an old Hindi film song (though the tweet was deleted promptly as it started to go viral). Before Chandrasekaran’s comment to media, there has been no reaction from either Tesla or Tata group on a partnership.
Tesla has registered an office in India, and this has been done in Bangalore (company is called ‘Tesla Motors India & Energy Pvt Ltd’). It is expected that the company is currently laying the ground-work for its long awaited India entry. Tata group is going strong in electric vehicles business. On India front, the electric version of Nexon mini SUV has received a healthy response and the company is looking at more electrified versions, including for Altroz hatchback.
