Tata Technologies bags business worth $100 million for embedded electronics and EVs

Global engineering and product development digital services company Tata Technologies is driving towards robust revenue generation in FY2022 on the back of new business opportunities. 

The company expects to clock 40% growth in FY2022 to achieve revenues of around Rs 3,700 Crore ($ 500 million) . This will constitute a smart return to form after the 16.5% decline to Rs 2,381 crore in the pandemic-impacted FY2021. 

Speaking to Autocar Professional, Warren Harris, CEO of Tata Technologies, said the company has received new orders worth over $100 million (Rs 740 crore)  which are mainly in the embedded vehicle electronics and digital domains. The company  claims to have  seen a significant uptick in the embedded technology business segment, amidst the pandemic and has been partnering with automakers from India, China, Japan, and Sweden amongst  others for its adoption. While most of the orders are from overseas four-wheeler OEMs, there are some from two-wheeler OEMs too. A significant portion of the new business is believed to have come from the EV category. 

For instance, Tata Technologies' mechatronics has enabled infotainment integration and validation for a premium European luxury carmaker. Similarly,  for a Swedish carmaker, Tata Technologies  provided complete systems integration apart from offering  validation and functional safety motor controllers for a Japanese EV maker. Likewise, Tata Technologies is also said to be  helping an Indian OEM with its next-gen electric scooters. 

What’s different is that the new business is on a 'turnkey basis'; earlier, OEMs preferred to retain most of the decision-making process within their enterprise while taking support from outside. Tata Technologies now gets to develop an entire vehicle programme, starting from concept through to managing vendors, testing and validation and eventually the product launch itself. “That is a first (in India),” says Harris, emphasising that the development helps slash vehicle development time and enables OEMs to react faster in the markets they cater to. The end-to-end time stands reduced to about 25-27 months from about 38-45 months earlier, Tata Technologies’ management claims.

"The ongoing pandemic has prompted OEMs to become more flexible and agile in order to remain competitive, resulting in a rush of investment towards digitalisation," adds Harris. He points out that the company's proprietary solution, eVMP – an electric vehicle scalable modular platform – is enabling automakers to accelerate their electric goals.

Tata Technologies management claims that some cautious OEMs prefer to transition their existing ICE platforms into EVs. Though the modification obviously comes with certain limitations and depends on several dynamics such as the objective of the programme, unit sales and level of localisation amongst others, it delivers 70-80 percent investment savings. 

Commenting on growth headwinds, Harris says that though Tata Technologies has thus far remained unaffected by semiconductor shortages, he believes that if the chip crisis continues for the next 12-18 months, some of its customers may cut down on discretionary investments.