Seeking details on how the Passenger Vehicle Business Unit of Tata Motors, like many other vehicle makers, faced several challenges from the aftermarket perspective during the lockdown and COVID-19 induced New Normal, the company spokesperson said, there were not many challenges as everything had been planned from their end well in time. However, during the initial days of lockdown, getting special permission from local authorities in certain markets was one challenge the company faced which was eventually resolved.

Tata Motors ensured that its customers and COVID frontline workers received seamless customer experience. As a part of its initiative, the company introduced tips to take care of their vehicles during lockdown along with breakdown assistance and hotline service, that was attending calls 24x7 to provide the necessary support. It also introduced an exclusive helpline for frontline COVID workers and healthcare professionals during the lockdown. Customers could dial the dedicated numbers for assistance in case of any emergency needs. The company has taken necessary approvals from local authorities to attend to vehicles safely and efficiently with all precautionary measures. It serviced 200 plus vehicles of COVID fighters such as doctors/police during the lockdown period across the country. To further support, it also extended the warranty and scheduled service period.

For all pending service appointments, the team called customers to ensure them that their vehicle was in safe hands. Given the relaxation in curbs, restarting of service appointments will be planned in a staggered manner to ensure sanitisation and social distancing to maintain utmost customer safety, the spokesperson said.

However, the average time to respond to customers’ call for repair/ service varied depending upon various factors. For service requests, customers could call the customer care number, where specialists were available to answer queries 24x7, he said. In the case of emergency roadside assistance, the company made arrangements that the services team reaches the location within 60 minutes under city limits and within 120 minutes on ghat roads and other places. The average time per service appointment depends on the type of job that needs to be done on the vehicle. For regular paid service it takes around three to four hours, and free services or minor check-ups are taken care of within 90 minutes, he said. “We have 633 workshops across the country, 444 dealer workshops and 189 TASCs (Tata Authorised Service Centres),” he added.

While these initiative are taken to cater to the requirements of the customers, the vehicle makers also face specific issues about increasing number of stock-keeping units, triggered by more models and variants being introduced. However, Tata Motors has been using a very sophisticated analytical tool to predict the consumption and stock accordingly. The planning for spare parts inventory is done at the dealerships to ensure that sufficient stock is available for all the models based on consumption pattern.

Skilling

Talking on the need to upskill the workforce at authorised service centres, the spokesperson said, upskilling is a continuous process to keep all the dealer workforce updated on the latest technological introductions in the new range of vehicles. “We have seven training centres across the country and are currently conducting regular online training sessions to ensure that our dealer manpower is well acquainted with the same,” he said.

With technological advancements in the cars increasing with every new model, the challenge is to match the service centres to cater to the emerging requirements. From a customer’s perspective, it is more convenient to operate any function with the click of a button or a touch screen. Therefore, from a service perspective, it has become easy to identify service requirements in the vehicle through the medium of a laptop, thereby resulting in faster repairs. “Tata Motors Passenger dealerships have a separate profile of DET (Diagnostic Expert cum trainer) who is skilled in identifying such service requirements and ensures that repairs take place faster and with accuracy. We do not see any challenges from a security perspective, as all technology and electronics in the vehicles undergo multiple tests before being launched,” he said.

Talking on sustainable initiatives, he said, “Earlier in September, the Tata Nexon became the first Indian car to be published on the prestigious International Dismantling Information System (IDIS) platform for End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV). With this achievement, Tata Motors reiterated its holistic commitment towards making the entire life cycle of its products sustainable, i.e. from the development of ultra-low/zero-emission vehicles to responsible dismantling and recycling of the vehicle at the final ELV stage. This milestone on the Nexon signifies the increasing commitment of Tata Motors to ‘End of Life’ across its range of vehicles and the beginning of sustained declaration of dismantling procedures across its entire range of vehicles that are complex with increasing technological content, though over the years commercial vehicles have achieved good levels of recyclability where dismantling procedures are better understood.” (MT)

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

ELANTAS Beck India Ltd. has announced a strategic push to strengthen its speciality chemicals portfolio in response to the country’s rapidly expanding data centre infrastructure sector. The company, recognised for its expertise in electrical insulation and electronic protection, aims to support the evolving technical demands of this high-growth market.

The firm’s product range includes wire enamels, high and low voltage insulation materials, varnishes, resins, potting compounds and electronic protection solutions. These materials serve critical components across data centre ecosystems, such as transformers, generators, motors, power distribution units, cooling systems, server room electronics and battery energy storage systems.

India’s data centre capacity is growing swiftly due to rising artificial intelligence workloads, cloud computing, 5G rollouts and stricter data localisation norms. As facilities shift towards higher density and always-on operations, the need for reliable electrical infrastructure has intensified, placing greater emphasis on thermal management, cooling efficiency, electronics protection and uninterrupted energy storage.

Leveraging over 70 years of experience in speciality chemicals, ELANTAS Beck India Ltd. continues to enhance its capabilities through application-driven innovation, technology transfers and ongoing material development. The company remains focused on aligning with emerging industry standards for efficiency, reliability and performance across critical electrical and electronic applications.

Anurag Roy, Managing Director, ELANTAS Beck India Ltd., said, “As India’s data centre ecosystem continues to expand, the demand for reliable and high-performance electrical infrastructure is increasing significantly. This is creating strong opportunities for advanced insulation and protection solutions across critical applications that enable uninterrupted operations of these facilities. With our proven chemistry in electrical insulation and electronic protection, ELANTAS is well-positioned to support this evolution through application-focused chemistries designed for reliability, efficiency and long-term operational performance.”

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

Greaves Finance, the EV-focused non-banking financial company (NBFC) subsidiary of Greaves Cotton, has announced the successful deployment of its previously sanctioned institutional debt of INR 2.23 billion.

The capital injection, executed during the April-March 2026 fiscal cycle, has accelerated the retail lending footprint of its multi-brand electric vehicle financing platform, ev.fin, scaling its physical presence to 74 cities across India. The entity plans to surpass 80 operational cities by July 2026.

The INR 2.23 billion institutional capital was raised through a calculated asset-liability mix consisting of Listed Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs) and structured term loans. The fundraise was anchored by a consortium of tier-one institutional lenders and asset management firms, including AK Capital, Northern Arc Investment Managers, AU Small Finance Bank, Ambit Finvest, MAS Financial Services and Maanveeya.

Backed by this capital deployment and rising consumer credit demand, the company's financial metrics as of March 2026 stand at INR 5.22 billion of Managed Assets Under Management (AUM), cumulative loan disbursements exceeding INR 7.74 billion, which includes over 55,000 active retail and fleet accounts.

Traditional automotive financing heavily weights a borrower's static income profile. In contrast, ev.fin utilises a differentiated, OEM-agnostic asset underwriting model that structures loan terms based on the real-time thermal health, degradation curves, and residual resale value of the EV battery pack.

The platform is directly embedded into the point-of-sale (POS) dealerships of major electric two-wheeler (E2W) and three-wheeler (E3W) original equipment manufacturers, including Ather Energy, Ampere, River, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor Company, Suzuki and Ultraviolette.

The platform's proprietary underwriting framework allows it to issue specialised, risk-adjusted credit instruments that track the entire functional lifecycle of an electric vehicle:

P B Sunil Kumar, Executive Director & CEO, Greaves Finance, said, “The deployment of substantial funds from our existing INR 2.23 billion, marks an important milestone for ev.fin and reflects strong institutional and investor trust. Our institutional partnerships and investor endorsement have provided a robust foundation, which demonstrates support for our differentiated business model and is a ringing endorsement of the way we have decided to scale the business."

"As India’s electric mobility market accelerates, innovative and accessible financing solutions will remain central to unlocking the next phase of growth. Recognising this potential, we are actively working toward expanding our lender ecosystem to support our next growth cycle while maintaining robust underwriting and portfolio quality,” he concluded.

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

The Mexican federal government has officially unveiled the prototype for Olinia, the country's first domestic electric vehicle (EV) brand. Coordinated by the Ministry of Science, Humanities, Technology, and Innovation (SECIHTI) and manufactured in Puebla, the project represents Mexico’s strategic shift from a pure export-oriented assembly hub to a developer of national intellectual property says a report by Mexico Business News.

Commercial production for Olinia is slated to begin in 2027, with the brand looking to challenge the historical dominance of foreign manufacturing frameworks.

Claudia Sheinbaum, President, Mexico, said, “Olinia represents the seed of a new innovation ecosystem built from Mexico."

The initiative directly addresses Mexico's long-standing reliance on final-assembly manufacturing under trade agreements like the USMCA. While countries like China capitalised on state coordination and strict supply chain control to build massive domestic EV ecosystems, Mexico historically lagged in capturing high-value-add automotive IP.

To bridge this gap, SECIHTI orchestrated an intensive 18-month engineering phase, uniting academic and public research powerhouses – including the Instituto Politécnico Nacional (IPN), Tecnológico Nacional de México (TecNM), UNAM and UPAEP.

The brand's debut model, the Olinia Uno, targets urban utility and aggressive affordability, aiming for a market segment largely overlooked by global legacy automakers.

The Olinia Uno is expected to cost approximately MXN 150,000 or USD 8,600 (INR 716,466), comes with a 14.7 kWh battery, with a claimed range of approximately 125 km per charge and a top speed of 50 kmph. The EV is expected to offer a low running cost of around MXN 0.5 or INR 2.74 per km.

In terms of features, the EV comes with a 7-inch centre display, Bluetooth 5.0, USB/USB-C ports, 6-passenger capacity and wheelchair accessibility.

Operating under a mixed-ownership corporate structure, the Olinia project is currently seeking MXN 200 million (USD 11.4 million) in private capital to transition from prototype to commercial manufacturing. Facility construction in Puebla is scheduled to begin between August and September 2026.

The plant is expected to debut with an initial capacity of 20,000 units per year, aiming to scale to 50,000 units within four years and eventually peak at 100,000 units annually. Olinia will launch with 50 percent localisation, with a mandate to hit 75 percent localisation by 2030.

The project is led by Director Roberto Capuano Tripp, with the initial phase involves deploying 2,000 charging points across Mexico City, the State of Mexico and Puebla to support the mass transition of public transport and taxi fleets.

To accommodate the rollout, federal authorities are collaborating with the Ministry of Economy to draft a new regulatory framework specifically governing low- and medium-speed urban vehicles. Furthermore, the vehicle's battery design incorporates a circular-economy strategy: power cells will be repurposed for residential energy storage before undergoing final chemical recycling at processing facilities in Sonora.

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!

Ultraviolette has entered the record books as the first Indian production motorcycle to tackle and finish the gruelling Isle of Man TT Mountain Circuit. This world-famous course, stretching 37.72 miles (60.72 kilometres), is widely considered one of the most punishing tracks in global motorsports.

The feat occurred on 6 June 2026, when several F77 MACH 2 machines from Ultraviolette successfully navigated the full 60.72 kilometres of demanding tarmac. A trio of skilled riders – former TT winner James Hillier, actor and biking enthusiast Ranvijay Singha and national champion Abhishek Vasudev – piloted the electric motorcycles. Official recognition for the accomplishment has come from both the Asia Books of Records and India Books of Records.

This success represents a turning point for the nation’s expanding electric vehicle sector. The F77’s ability to master one of motorcycling’s most revered circuits highlights the advanced performance potential of Indian-designed electric motorcycles on an international stage. Ultraviolette views the achievement as a major step in its ongoing effort to redefine electric mobility and position India as a frontrunner in future transportation solutions.

Narayan Subramaniam, CEO and Co-Founder, Ultraviolette, said, "Completing a lap of the Isle of Man TT Mountain Course with the F77s is a significant milestone for Ultraviolette and a proud moment for Indian design and engineering. It demonstrates how far electric motorcycle technology has evolved and reinforces our belief that high-performance electric mobility can compete on the world's most demanding stages.

“For decades, the Isle of Man TT has been where motorcycle technology is tested, proven and celebrated. The TT Zero class was ahead of its time and showed the world that electric motorcycles could be more than an alternative; that they could be genuinely exciting, competitive and capable. Today, electric motorcycles have reached an entirely new level of capability and we would love to see electric racing return to the Isle of Man TT and continue driving the next chapter of motorcycle innovation."

Comments (0)

ADD COMMENT

Link Copied!