Tata Motors and Morris Garages (MG) have slashed the prices of electric vehicles, bringing their EV lineup in line with gasoline and diesel models.

On February 13, Tata Motors, India’s largest electric vehicle seller, announced significant price cuts for the electric versions of its Nexon sports utility vehicle (SUV) and Tiago mini.

The Nexon EV will see the biggest price cut of Rs 1.20 lakh (the entry variant is priced at Rs 14.50 lakh, ex-showroom), while the Tiago will get a price cut of up to Rs 70,000, with the base model currently priced at Rs 50,000. Eight hundred thousand.

According to the Times of India (TOI) report, Tata said it is passing on “battery price reduction benefits” to customers. TOI quoted Vivek Srivatsa, chief commercial officer (CCO) of Tata Passenger Vehicles’ electric vehicle division, as saying: “Battery cost accounts for a large portion of the total cost of an electric vehicle.”

Srivatsa added: “As battery prices have softened recently and considering that they are likely to decline in the foreseeable future, we have chosen to proactively pass the resulting benefits directly to our customers.”

For example, the annual driving cost of the electric Nexon for 15,000 km will be Rs 15,000, while the model’s diesel variant will cost Rs 96,021 and the petrol variant will cost Rs 1.20 lakh. This means that the slightly higher cost of buying an electric car (compared to a petrol car) can be recouped in less than a year.

The petrol Nexon is priced at Rs 14.20 lakh on-road, while the electric Nexon is priced at Rs 15.10 lakh due to the reduced green car registration cost. At an on-road price of Rs 15.40 lakh, the diesel model is already more expensive than the electric model and is expected to depreciate from day one.

Srivatsa, chief CO officer of Tata Passenger Vehicles Electric Vehicles Division, said that Tata Motors hopes to accelerate “the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles” through this measure.

On the other hand, MG Motor has reduced the ex-show price of the Comet mini electric car by Rs 1 lakh, so the car is now priced at Rs 7 lakh. The company has launched a new, more affordable entry-level variant of its large ZS green SUV priced at Rs 19 lakh as compared to the previous starting price of Rs 22 lakh.