Tata Altroz EV Paused: Here's Why It Won't Happen

Why Tata Motors Paused Making the Altros EV Car

What Happened?

Tata Motors has stopped working on their Altros EV car for now. Many people who wanted to buy this car feel sad about this news. People who watch the car industry are now asking questions about the future of small electric cars in India. Tata Motors made this decision even though they had been working on the car for many years and showed it at many car shows.

The Big Problem: Where to Put the Battery

The biggest problem with the Altros EV was very simple but hard to fix: they couldn't figure out where to put the battery. Big cars like SUVs sit high off the ground, but the Altros is a low car. This made it very hard for the engineers to find a good place for the battery without changing the whole car.

The Altros only has 165mm of space between the bottom of the car and the ground. When Tata's engineers tried to put the battery under the floor, it would make this space only 145mm. This is too low for normal roads that have bumps and holes.

They thought about making the whole car taller, but that wouldn't work either. It would make the car look strange and not like the nice hatchback it was meant to be. The design team didn't want to change how the car looks because that's what makes it special.

Another idea was to put the battery in the floor of the car where people sit. But this would make the back seats uncomfortable. They also thought about using a thinner battery, but then the car couldn't drive very far on one charge.

Finding the Right Spot to Sell It

Besides the technical problems, Tata Motors wasn't sure where the Altros EV would fit with their other electric cars. Shailesh Chandra, who helps run Tata Motors, said they already have three cars in the ₹8-15 lakh price range: the Tiago EV, Punch EV, and Nexon EV.

The Altros EV was first planned to cost between ₹5-8 lakh, but battery costs went up, so the price would have to go up too. This made it too similar to their other cars, especially the Tiago EV, which costs less but does similar things.

The Tiago EV starts at ₹7.99 lakh and can go up to 315 km before needing to be charged again. The Punch EV starts at ₹9.99 lakh and looks like a small SUV. This made it hard for the Altros EV to be special. It would have a 28 kWh battery and could go about 320 km, which is only a little better than what people can already buy.

Small Cars Are Becoming Less Popular

The stopping of the Altros EV project shows that what car buyers want is changing. In the first half of this year, small cars dropped from having 35.1% of the market to only 30%. Meanwhile, SUVs now make up 48.3% of all car sales.

This change is very clear in electric cars. SUVs are better for electric cars because they have more space for batteries. Small SUVs like the Punch EV sit higher and have more floor space, making it easier to fit battery packs without making the car uncomfortable or too low to the ground.

Many things are making people choose bigger cars:

People have more money to spend

Bigger cars seem safer

Many people think SUVs look cooler

In the world of electric cars, these feelings are even stronger because the technology is still new and changing. People want to buy the most useful and future-ready option they can find.

A Smart Move?

Instead of completely giving up on the project, Tata Motors decided to just put it on hold for now. If things change in the future, they might start working on it again. This means the car is possible to make, but right now it doesn't make business sense.

This seems like a smart choice for Tata. They are already a leader in making electric cars in India. If they made the Altros EV now, it might compete with their own other cars and confuse customers. The Punch EV is already selling well, and they're about to release a new fancy electric SUV called the Curve EV. Adding the Altros EV right now might just make things more confusing for people who want to buy a Tata electric car.

For people who were waiting for an electric version of the popular Altros, this news is disappointing. But Tata's current electric cars offer good alternatives that meet the same needs, often with better features. The pause on the Altros EV shows how hard it is to make electric cars using designs that were made for regular cars.