Page 8 - ITLN November - December 2023 for the magzter
P. 8
Cover Story
Automotive
Logistics
as part of providing driving comfort.
The new generation transmission
technologies are improving fuel
efficiency as well. Hence, the demand
will bring a big opportunity for
localisation in India. As OEMs we are
reaching out to global transmission
manufacturers to look at the possibility
of investing and manufacturing in India,”
he added.
He also cited a few challenges in
achieving localisation of transmission
systems which include the specialised
talent pool and newer technologies.
“The lack of widespread expertise
and specialised skill sets required
for the production of automatic
transmission systems adds to the
localisation challenge. While India
has a robust talent pool, expertise in
this specific domain is comparatively
limited. Bridging the skills gap is
crucial for successful localization.
We do understand that there are
challenges of varying technologies,
but the growing Indian market and the
demand for automatic transmissions
would offset these challenges and India
will become a good source of automatic
transmission manufacturing for the
world,” he added.
Another factor that is boosting the
Indian automotive industry's plan for
“Transmission system is one of the localisation is electrification and the
biggest imports by value in the auto switch to electric vehicles.
sector of the country. We need to also Meanwhile, talking about the
acknowledge that in our efforts for sourcing strategies for raw materials,
localisation, we did achieve progress Badrish Sinha, vice-president -
on several items, but on transmission, purchasing, VE Commercial Vehicles,
we have not progressed much as noted that Indian steel mills have the
we have not been able to reduce competency and efficiency to compete
the import in this area. Imports in with global markets and by working
2023 and 24 would be close to ₹8000 closely with the steel mills we can
crore. Within two years, the import reduce steel imports.
has almost doubled, which is a huge Veeraraghavan R, senior vice
growth in the automotive transmission president - strategic sourcing, Mahindra
market,” he said. & Mahindra, emphasised electronics
He also pointed out that due to the The lack of widespread as a very critical area for the Indian
increased consumer preferences for expertise and auto industry to localise, considering
automatics, the import of transmission specialised skill the growing demand. “We also need to
systems is growing significantly. sets required for the secure our supply of semiconductors,”
“As the consumers have been production of automatic he added.
changing towards more aspirational Even though there is a huge amount
vehicles and technologies. We have transmission systems of import still happening in these
seen degrowth in the entry-level cars adds to the localisation spaces, the government's policy push
and consumers are opting for higher- challenge. and industry's risk mitigation strategies
end cars in the last two to three years. Sachin Kulkarni are improving the chances of achieving
So, improvement in auto transmission Skoda Auto Volkswagen India supply chain localisation for the
technology has also been propelled country's automotive sector.
6
November - December 2023 www.itln.in
