On September 25 and 26, the Manesar-based International Center for Automotive Technology (iCAT) hosted its fourth workshop on ‘Electrifying for a Greener Tomorrow’.

Nitin Gokarn, CEO, National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP), Jonathon Eaton, CCO, Millbrook, UK and Sanjay Bandopadhyaya, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, government of India, inaugurated the workshop on Hybrid Electric Vehicles and Electric Vehicles (HEVs and EVs). Also present were I V Rao, advisor, Maruti Suzuki India, and Dinesh Tyagi, director, iCAT.

The speakers for the workshop included experts from leading research and development organizations like AVL of Graz, FEV of Germany, Hella KGaA Hueck & Co, Germany, ETAS of Germany, Horiba Japan, KPIT, MathWorks, Tata Motors, Ricardo, Ansys and Denso.

After three successful workshops on hybrid and EV technology in April 2011, September 2012 and September 2013 to promote the sustainable technology of HEVs and EVs, iCAT continues its endeavour towards further creating awareness on the implementation of HEV and EV technology in the Indian market and learning from global developments.

This year’s workshop was yet another effort by iCAT to build a platform for discussion and communication for the industry, with a view that new ideas and proposals debated by the experts could be taken up for the development of future breakthroughs.

The government of India has shown optimism and interest towards the development of a policy, wherein it is proposed to create a national level apex inter-ministerial structure to address the challenges toward promoting domestic manufacturing of hybrid/electric vehicles in India. On January 9, 2013, the prime minister of India unveiled the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 which focuses strongly on building domestic capabilities through R&D and a strong local supply chain for the new technologies.