The 19th edition of the SIAT 2026 ran from 27 to 30 January in Pune, organised by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) in association with SAE India. It drew close to 285 exhibitors and around 260 technical papers, spanning everything from start-ups to legacy OEMs.

Dr Reji Mathai, Director at ARAI, spoke with about safety, powertrains, localisation, and what 2026 holds for the Indian auto industry.

SIAT 2026 is a big show. Start-ups, legacy players, India-specific solutions all under one roof. What are the highlights for you?

The pace of change has accelerated sharply. Earlier, the cycle was driven largely by emission regulations, which came every five years or so. Now a whole new set of demands is arriving at once consumer comfort, safety, and a surge of electronics and processors across vehicle systems. That's why you see so many collaborations at this edition: start-ups alongside established players, all trying to understand what's new and where they can contribute. We have close to 285 exhibitors and around 260 technical papers a rare combination of technology and its practical applicability in one place.

Let's build on two points you raised, safety and testing, and the growing role of technology and electronics. Going forward, what are the key trends in safety, and how will ARAI push that agenda?

Globally, wherever new safety regulations have kicked in, accident fatalities have started to come down even as vehicle volumes grew. In India, our fatalities are plateauing, they are not falling. So, the push is on two fronts. The first is regulation: Bharat NCAP 2.0 is on the way, and ADAS mandates are being tightened. Right now, we are at a level where driver-assist systems issue warnings and, in limited cases, intervene braking, for instance but full takeover is still ahead.

The second front is localisation. The volumes we are talking about are enormous. We need the sensors, controllers, and electronic systems to be made in India. That's where the real game-changer lies. To support that, we have set up an ADAS city — a controlled, repeatable test environment with standardised dummies and simulated scenarios. It lets OEMs validate products against Indian conditions far faster than road testing ever could.

And the ADAS city for OEMs to sharpen their testing?

Exactly. The technology and software for ADAS are largely available globally, but road scenarios differ enormously once you bring them into India. The ADAS city lets manufacturers adapt and validate much faster. On top of that, we have been capturing real scenarios across the country — a vehicle fitted with sensors has already covered 20,000 to 30,000 kilometres of Indian roads.

That data lets an OEM run a scenario on a desktop, check how its controller responds, and fine-tune it, no need to go out on the road every time. The plan is to make that database available to everyone so that the whole industry can tune its systems more effectively.

Is there a way to quantify the impact of these technologies — say, in terms of bringing road-accident fatalities down?

We can already map the trend: vehicle population has grown steadily over the past five years while fatalities have stayed flat — so, per vehicle, the rate is effectively rising. But the real impact of the current wave of technology will take another four to five years to show up in the numbers.

The nature of the intervention has changed. Earlier it was passive — seatbelts, airbags, safer brakes. Now there is an active, continuous dialogue between the system and the driver. That shift is what will move the needle, and we should start seeing it clearly by the end of the decade.

Moving to powertrains, there's a growing sense that India won't settle on a single answer. It will be a mix, much as the E20 programme borrowed Brazil's ethanol playbook. How do you see India's powertrain strategy shaping up, and what role does ARAI play?

It comes down to what a country is strong in. India is not sitting on large crude reserves, and the raw-material base for batteries is limited. But we have a vast agricultural sector. That's exactly why the ethanol story worked — we could scale it up alongside gasoline, with the OEMs, SIAM, and the government all aligned. Looking ahead, it will definitely be a multi-fuel landscape.

The volumes and growth rates we are dealing with mean no single powertrain can meet the demand. Which segment grows faster will depend on local availability and local needs. Delhi moved to CNG because of air quality; other regions may lean on ethanol or hydrogen for different reasons.

The automotive industry plan for the coming decade is still being worked out, and everyone is working backwards from the net-zero 2070 target. Energy strategy is at the centre of that conversation, and ARAI has been part of it at every stage — from E20 to EV certification frameworks.

Policy has to keep pace with that multiplicity. Hybrids, for instance, found genuine demand at the state level, yet central policy hasn't really pushed them. How do you see policy at every level keeping up with where the market is heading?

Central policy has to take a holistic view — it cannot pick one powertrain and ignore the rest. What the government has done is lay out long-horizon frameworks: PLI schemes with a seven-year runway, FAME with its own timeline.

The real mechanism that will tie it all together, though, is Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) norms. Once those are tightened, every manufacturer will know exactly what its vehicle mix needs to look like over the next five years: how many EVs, how much efficiency improvement, and what the CO₂ ceiling is. That gives the industry a clear, level playing field to plan against. I think the direction is right, and we will see more integrated solutions emerge.

Two years of incentive support doesn't give automakers much runway to plan an entire EV portfolio. On EVs specifically, do we need a longer-term policy horizon?

The initial benchmark set by NITI Aayog was around 30% EV penetration, after which market forces are expected to take over. Three-wheelers are already close to that — the total cost of ownership story is compelling, and penetration is strong. Two-wheelers are the next segment to watch; the economics are improving fast there too.

But the honest reality is that we are trying to replicate in five to seven years what the internal-combustion engine took four decades to build. That's not a fair comparison, and the ecosystem — charging, components, supply chains — needs time to mature.

The good news is that manufacturers are preparing: localisation is being prioritised, and dependence on government incentives is consciously being reduced, because everyone knows those will eventually phase out.

Around 40% penetration for two-wheelers?

Once that threshold is reached in two-wheelers, we are talking about a very large volume segment. The ecosystem will need to scale in proportion — more resources, deeper supply chains, and more robust systems. But the trajectory is encouraging.

Do you have any projections you'd like to put on the table at this point?

I'll leave the projections to the government and the planning bodies. What I will say is that the fundamentals are in place, and as the systems become more robust and resources scale up, focused penetration gains in each segment will follow.

Reskilling is another thread you've been focused on. As technology accelerates and regulations tighten, what will ARAI contribute on that front?

The approach has been to get ahead of the curve — ideally two years before a new requirement comes into force. When battery technology was ramping up, the Ministry of Heavy Industries stepped in with support, and ARAI was ready with testing capability when the industry needed it. The same happened with ADAS: by the time manufacturers started looking for validation tools, we already had them.

Now we are building a hydrogen cylinder test facility, because hydrogen is clearly the next conversation. The pattern is the same: watch what is happening globally, map it to India's roadmap, and build the capability in advance. That way, when policy or demand arrives, the infrastructure is already there.

Finally, three key trends that will define 2026 according to you?

2026 is short-term. The trends are already in motion. ADAS adoption will continue to accelerate. The alternate-fuel market will stabilise, even if the exact mix is still being worked out. And there will be a sharper focus on consumer education, particularly around driving behaviour — because without that, no amount of technology will deliver the safety outcomes we need.

Longer out, the big shift is toward software-defined vehicles. How much software enters the vehicle, and how well it is integrated, will determine performance and efficiency in ways we are only beginning to understand. And with that comes the critical question of data — how it is collected, stored, and secured. Cybersecurity, in short, is going to be a defining issue.