Charging ahead: Focus on net carbon zero, says TaMo's Shailesh Chandra

"Frankly, Tata Motors has no dilemma around which technology to invest in. We have to watch for the long-term mega trends since there will be many intermittent confusions and distractions"

In the middle of the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, Shailesh Chandra, who had recently taken the reins of the passenger vehicle arm of Tata Motors after finding success with the electric vehicle (EV) business, set out to meet the company’s dealers.

“In my first meeting with them, I was literally ragged,” remembers Chandra, the managing director of Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility. He found that only 30 per cent of the dealerships were making money at that time. “Then why were the remaining 70 per cent sticking around?” he wondered, although he knew the answer.