When Ratan Tata’s name pops up in conversations about India’s business elite, it commands respect and admiration, typically accompanying descriptions of his humility, humane leadership and visionary contributions to the country’s industrial growth. As the chairman of the Tata Group, he presided over one of the world’s most diversified and respected conglomerates.
In the Indian business landscape, few names carry more weight, greater respect or foster more pride among an entire nation. However, when Ratan Tata became immersed in the Indian electric-vehicle (EV) revolution late in his life, it wasn’t primarily for business reasons. It was for a nation’s future.
When electric vehicles in India still seemed like a pipedream, Tata quietly heralded what would become one of the cornerstones of India’s energy transition. Through Tata Motors, and with his own personal determination to innovate, Ratan Tata began a revolution that is now starting to gain real momentum: India’s shift from internal combustion engines to electric ones.
Ratan Tata’s life is a story of tradition meets modernity. His success in carrying forward the Tata Group’s legacy while in the same breathtaking India towards a greener and more sustainable future is a fine example of men at the helm of the corporate world not just executing but acting as visionaries and torchbearers.
What motivated this quiet yet powerful transformation? How did this man, who came across as a conservative industrialist deeply rooted in India’s industrial tradition, turn into one of the biggest proponents of electric mobility?
And so we come to Ratan Tata’s role in the EV transition in India – one that gives meaning to his entire life’s work, his values and his unwavering faith that a better future is possible.
A Legacy of Bold Moves
Ratan Tata, who took over the Tata Group in 1991, when India was just opening up its economy, was anything but a conservative for a man who spent much of his career trying to preserve the values of one of India’s most venerable business houses. He was bold and courageous, pursuing decisions that completely recast Indian industry.
His pet project was launching the Tata Nano, a car that was conceived and designed to be within the reach of the average Indian, in 2008. The car never quite achieved the kind of commercial success it had hoped for, but it showed the world that Tata was looking to make things that could change society.
This philosophy would later manifest itself in Tata Motors’ drive toward electric vehicles.
Early EV Endeavors
India’s electric story did not start with the electric enthusiasm we have today. In the early 2000s, when discussions about electric mobility were still in their infancy, Tata Motors quietly began looking at hybrid and electric technologies.
At the helm of the company was Ratan Tata, who understood that the future of mobility would have to move away from fossil fuels. The reality of an environmentally aware India that required self-reliance in transportation also meant that imported oil will be the fuel that the country will need to turn away from.
But it was only in the mid-2010s that Tata Motors started ramping up its efforts in this area. Ratan Tata had stepped down as chair in 2012, though he continued to play an active advisory role and helped guide the company’s EV strategy. The Tata Nexon EV, which went on sale in 2020, has since become a symbol of India’s growing interest in electric vehicles.
Affordable and India-Centric
Affordability was at the heart of Tata’s EV strategy. If electric vehicles were ever going to become a true mass-market phenomenon in India, they couldn’t remain a luxury item. The Tata Nexon EV sold for a quarter of what an electric vehicle from other brands cost. This made it one of the cheapest electric vehicles in the country. According to Tata, it was not so much about winning the market as bringing the joy of electric mobility to millions of Indians.
Tata Motors also knew that the Indian roads and the driving conditions here presented a unique challenge, or rather many challenges. EVs would have to be ruggedised to handle India’s somewhat varied road conditions, and this is exactly how the Nexon EV was designed. Tata’s Nexon EV has turned out to be a roaring success.
He Believed Beyond Just Cars in Building an EV Ecosystem
Rather than just think about how India could manufacture electric cars, Ratan Tata thought about how, to make EVs truly work, a wider ecosystem had to be built: one that included charging infrastructure, battery technology, energy storage and more. Through a large group of companies within the Tata Group, he built a lot of this.
Tata Power
A lack of infrastructure has been one of the biggest hurdles to the adoption of EVs in India. Ratan Tata saw this as an opportunity. Under his leadership, Tata Power set out to fill the gap. Now the company is setting up EV charging points all over the country. This, Tata believed, will give consumers the confidence to switch to EVs, knowing that they don’t have to worry about charging their cars. India needed the infrastructure for electric mobility, in order to make the leap.
Tata Chemicals
Electric vehicles are a battery-intensive product – regardless of whether we’re talking about two- or four-wheelers. With that in mind, Tata Chemicals invested in research related to lithium-ion batteries – to create an in-house battery production facility capable of reducing dependence on foreign imports, and thereby lower EV costs for Indian consumers. As with Tata Motors years before, vertical integration ensured that the group’s flagship company would not be left behind in the international scramble for battery technology.
Ratan Tata’s Enduring Legacy
Given that Ratan Tata’s second last chapter was dedicated to the twin priorities of sustainability and electric mobility, the need to fast-track our progress in India has become more urgent and imperative. Five and a half months exactly after the publication of the column above, Ratan Tata passed away on 9 October 2024 at age 86 at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai where he had been hospitalized. The end of an era, but Ratan Tata’s legacy in electric mobility will continue to shape the future of India for decades to come.
Few individuals have shaped modern India more than Ratan Tata. A man of industry and humility who led the Tata Group to heights that not only positioned India on the forefront of global business but also continues to inspire generations of entrepreneurs, and dreamers. From 1991 to 2012, and again briefly in 2016-17, he served as chairman of the Tata Group.
During this time, he spearheaded the organization through immense periods of change. His growth of the business was never confined to mere bottom lines but was an endeavor to build a future India on ethics, sustainability and innovation.
What Ratan Tata’s Vision Means for India?
Without the vision and the direction that Ratan Tata provided, the future envisions may never have been possible – India’s EV market would not be where it is today (with Tata Motors a leading player in the Indian EV industry), and the infrastructure necessary to make electric mobility a reality for millions of Indians would not currently be under construction, thanks in part to Tata’s vision.
But most of all, Ratan Tata’s life and work present us with the possibility of business conducted with responsibility, where profit is just an outcome of other dreams — of a greener world for all the generations to come.
Conclusion
For Ratan Tata, it was about building bridges between tradition and innovation, between the past and the future. In this sense, he was a thoroughly modern man, but with a deep respect for the past. After his retirement in 2012, Ratan Tata has also been involved in the country’s push into electric vehicles. His story and his innovations will be a testament to the ways in which companies and people can be imbued with greater values.
