Tata Tech eyes key role in Foxconn’s EV ecosystem

Tata Technologies which recently joined the Foxconn-initiated MIH or 'mobility in harmony consortium' is looking forward to playing an important role in bringing together all the four pillars of collaboration -- light weighting, vehicle architecture, software and autonomous -- so as to benefit the entire electric vehicle ecosystem says Sonal Ramrakhiani, President Sales and COO,  Automotive of Tata Technologies.

MIH comprises more than 2439 members from a wide spectrum of fields including software, hardware and services spread across 65 countries and regions. 

The goal of this open electric vehicle alliance is to bring the strategic partners together to build the next generation of EV, autonomous driving, and mobility service applications, the global engineering and product development and Pune-based Tata Technologies believes that with the   required domain expertise it has acquired over past several years, the company can play a guiding role for the industry. 

"From the expertise perspective, Tata technologies can cover the whole domain of the EV ecosystem and would want to   have a voice in each of these committees," Ramrakhiani told Autocar Professional . The platform provides an environment where all the major functions of an EV such as chassis, batteries, ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems), cyber security, cloud connectivity, BMS (Battery Management System), and many more can be developed using reference designs and standards that can help reduce cost and development cycles to drive more business opportunities for the overall electric vehicle market.

In the exchange, Tata Technologies through the MIH collaboration hopes to collaborate with other members including OEMs and suppliers on solutions and capabilities that will enable it to innovate new solutions and standardise the EV technologies that underpin the e-mobility development.

"We are the first and only ESP to join the collaboration so far and the consortium is focused on democratising the EV development processes," she added  emphasising that the development will help it in getting  access to design, data, development, standard, and possibly even supply chain access. "All this will help in faster time to market, more cost efficiency for the industry, and therefore better adoption of EVs in that sense,"  Ramrakhiani continued. 

Foxconn, which is amongst the largest electronic  contract manufacturers in the world, is looking to collaborate with mining major Vedanta for development of semiconductors and display fabs in the country. The company also has in its pipeline plans to set up plants for EVs through its subsidiary, Foxtron.