‘Reconfiguring global supply chains offer immense potential for India’: Sona Comstar’s Vivek Vikram Singh

With a rapidly growing EV parc, and the zero-tailpipe-emission technology increasingly making inroads into the Indian vehicle ecosystem, the situation demands the establishment of a local EV supply chain to cater to the growing needs of the domestic market, as well as further the penetration with improved cost structures, and tap into export opportunities.

While the country has a robust supply chain of conventionally-powered vehicles that continue to form a predominant 98 percent of the India’s mobility market, and has also proven the reliability of its supply chain despite external atrocities faced during Covid, the availability of critical EV components continues to be limited.

Component makers have always followed market trends, but the EV domain has seen very few players make the move. According to Vivek Vikram Singh, MD and Group CEO, Sona Comstar, “It is not a chicken-and-an-egg situation anymore, and the quandary whether to invest in EVs or not – that phase is way behind us.

“The more forward-thinking Tier-1 suppliers had started investing into EV technology way earlier because even when the penetration in India was low, it was already picking up in the rest of the world. Indian component makers exported nearly US$ 25 billion worth of components in the last quarter for EV OEMs outside the country. And this trend has been going on for the last five years,” Singh said while speaking in a panel discussion on ‘Building the EV Supply Chain in India’ at the Autocar Professional India EV Conclave in Chennai on November 21.

However, he pointed out that while the readiness to venture into EVs among component makers in India is very high, India lacks rare-earth materials like Neodymium, and lithium-ion. Moreover, with the country being proficient on the EV powertrain front with the motor, inverter, and gearbox, the power electronics is an area still getting evolved.

But, showing his optimism, Singh added, “The global supply chains are reconfiguring, and there are going to be great opportunities in this chaos, which is always a ladder for those who know how to climb it. So, we must always focus on building capabilities around technology.”

“The supply may not create demand, but demand, inevitably will create supply, and therefore, if we have incentives that empower the consumers to buy vehicles, that would spur everything and streamline the EV ecosystem in India. I am far more optimistic than I have ever been about electrification, both globally, and in India,” he signed off.