Introduction
Tata Motors had a head start in the EV foray by launching multiple products in the past, and these numbers are set to double in the next year and a half. To see how these EVs are made, we visited Tata’s modern production facility, currently home to the Nexon range, and this is how it went about.
Tata’s EV division, known as Tata Passenger Electric Mobility Limited (TPEML), acquired the plant in Sanand back in August 2022. Previously owned by Ford, the facility was not the only thing that made its way to Tata, as the automaker transferred all the employees under its team too. The powertrain plant though is leased to the homegrown brand. The first set of cars in the form of the ICE-powered Nexon rolled out in January this year. The visit did evoke a few Déjà vu moments, as I had visited this very establishment back when it was at the reigns of Ford.
With a huge investment, Tata undertook retooling and other upgrades to make the plant what it is today. The 460-acre area is divided into four large parts, namely the press shop, body construction, paint shop, and the final assembly. Starting with the press shop, this is where the life of your upcoming Tata EV will begin. Yes, going ahead, all Tata EVs will be manufactured exclusively at this facility. After pressing the fresh roll of steel into dyes with the help of hydraulic presses, the parts make their way to the weld shop, where the company has achieved 98 per cent automation. The press shop comes in at a close second with 80 per cent automation. Watching these robots automatically weld multiple parts to perfection was soothing to the eyes at the least.
The paint shop starts off work on the body shell with each unit, referred to as Body In White (BIW) dipped in various coatings before the actual paint work begins. The paint shop houses 80 robots, and this is the section where you see a fair bit of the magic. The fresh coat of paint is sprayed onto the chassis meticulously and then followed by a layer of clear coat. Seeing this in person was nothing short of utter satisfaction for the OCD fanatic in me. The one doubt I had in mind was how the robots and the workers overall managed to paint and assemble different combinations one after the other. This is achieved with a very thin margin of error, courtesy of a unique RFID that denotes every detail down to the last trim before it rolls off the assembly line.
Moving on to the final assembly stage, the Nexon gets ready for its marriage — when the engine and its components are brought together and bolted onto the body shell. Here too, there is no fixed line as we witnessed not just petrol and diesel engines but even the EV components celebrating their union with the body. The car then heads towards the Trim Chassis Finish (TCF) line where all the respective trims and interior bits and bobs are loaded onto the Nexon. Notably, the doors are temporarily taken apart for ease of access to the inside and quickly installed back before heading for the final inspection.
The final inspection line is by far a lengthy process as Tata wants to leave no room for error when it comes to finesse. This is followed by a test on multiple tracks located inside the facility, before it heads to the stockyard, waiting to head to its new home.
This is when we thought the plant tour came to an end, but for Tata Motors, it’s not just about building a vehicle (or multiple of them, for that matter). The brand has also invested in skill development, and this is visible in the skill development centre located on the ground, fondly called Nalanda. The in-house training facility is a first of its kind in the country and provides higher education to its employees. After joining hands with Ganpat University in Gujarat, it has seven dedicated classrooms with a capacity to accommodate 500 students at a time. The courses are held after the regular shifts get over, for an average of three hours per day. Notably, there is no bond to be signed at the time of enrolling for these courses, neither are there any costs involved to the employees. The degrees, which range from diplomas to B.Tech and M.Tech, make them future-ready for new technologies such as EVs and come what may. The walls around these classrooms denote the rich history and heritage of the Tata Group, right from when Jamsetji Tata was at the helm of the business.
Tata Motors currently manufactures 350 cars per day, and the production is being ramped up on a regular basis. The plant has the capacity to produce 3 lakh vehicles annually, a number that can rise to 4.20 lakh units should the market demand it. As we said earlier, this factory will manufacture all the Tata EVs, so expect all new cars such as the Sierra EV, Harrier EV, Safari EV, Avinya, and the following models to roll out from this very facility. Of course, the first will be the Curvv EV, which will also mark a change in the brand’s strategy going ahead, where it will introduce EV versions followed by their respective ICE counterparts.
