The Tata Group is India’s largest conglomerate, with a mixed market worth of round €283 billion, as of March 2025. A few of its finest identified corporations embody Tata Metal, Air India, and Tata Motors, proprietor of Jaguar Land Rover.
Additionally throughout the group is Tata Elxsi, a design and engineering agency. Identified for working intently with the Indian House Analysis Organisation, the corporate has an extra give attention to creating options for the automotive business.
By 2035, the EU has decreed that no new inner combustion engine (ICE) vehicles will probably be bought within the bloc. However, with simply ten years left on the clock, are we the place we have to be?
On this episode of The Large Query, Hannah Brown is joined by Manoj Raghavan, CEO and Managing Director at Tata Elxsi, to debate how design innovation may assist Europe obtain its EV targets.
What number of EV chargers does Europe want?
Based on Manoj, the price of EVs and the provision of chargers are the 2 key elements holding Europeans again from going electrical.
“Europe wants, in my understanding, a minimal of three and a half million public charging factors, and as much as 8 million public charging factors,” Manoj defined.
There’s presently estimated to be round 1 million chargers throughout Europe, primarily concentrated in main cities within the Netherlands, Germany and France.
“Nevertheless, the problem isn’t just concerning the variety of public chargers, the problem can be concerning the variety of quick chargers which can be accessible,” he added.
Proper now in Europe, there’s solely round one charger for each 13 EVs. Manoj estimated that quantity needs to be round 1:2 or 1:3, to make it a handy choice for the lots.
What’s extra is that we’d like round 60-70% of these to be quick charging stations, however solely 13% have that capability proper now, he stated.
“As you have got extra EVs on the street and particularly throughout both peak hours or throughout vacation season, when everyone is on the roads and the chargers are clogged, that does not give an excellent consumer expertise, so individuals will quickly begin lacking their ICE engines,” Manoj added.
“So I feel until the charging infrastructure retains up, it is going to be troublesome for the EV business to maintain progress.”
Battery innovation
EVs have been round a short while now, that means points with battery fires, faults and prices have been dramatically diminished, although many would argue that prime costs stay a barrier to uptake.
One of many main points going through the business in the present day is the price, each financially and to the planet, of the uncooked supplies to make the batteries and the safety of their provide.
“I feel the best-case state of affairs for Mom Earth is that we’ve got some alternate materials that’s accessible in abundance. Possibly silicon, perhaps sand, perhaps sodium and so forth — there’s quite a lot of analysis that’s occurring, during which case, then, we actually need not do all this mining for lithium and the opposite uncommon earth heavy metals,” Manoj defined.
Manoj additionally steered that the event of recent battery supplies will, over the subsequent 5 to 10 years, permit customers so as to add 1000km of vary inside 5 minutes.
He additionally harassed the necessity to increase recycling capability for the present era of EV batteries. In a 2024 report printed by NGO Transport & Surroundings, it’s estimated that native recycling of EVs batteries may present sufficient metals to provide over 2 million EVs in 2030 in Europe.
“Tata Elxsi has constructed a battery passport answer…to essentially assist corporations monitor a few of these supplies proper from the mining all the way in which as much as finish of life and second use,” Manoj defined.
“[Manufacturers] positively have to have such an answer as a result of as they launch automobiles, there will probably be a number of variants of batteries that will probably be within the subject. Even for them, it will be a nightmare to handle all of the kinds of batteries that they’re promoting, and monitoring every of them.”
He continued: “So together with the [battery passport], you even have the digital twin answer that we’ve got constructed, the place we will actually monitor the efficiency of every battery. You may go right down to the cell stage as effectively. So, these are all instruments and methods which can be accessible and naturally, through the use of a few of these, what we do is we encourage recyclability, we encourage reuse of lithium, and so finally hope that it’s going to cut back the stress on Mom Earth.”
The Large Queryis a sequence from Euronews Enterprise the place we sit down with business leaders and consultants to debate among the most vital matters on in the present day’s agenda.
Watch the video above to see the complete dialogue with Tata Elxsi’s Manoj Raghavan.
