India must cut $1.4 billion auto-component trade deficit by building advanced tech: Hyundai Motor India's Tarun Garg

India exported approximately $24 billion of auto components in FY26, while importing around $25.4 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $1.4 billion. That, according to Tarun Garg, MD and CEO of Hyundai Motor India, is a concern.

“The concern goes beyond the deficit. Our exports remain concentrated in relatively mature technologies, while our imports are led by advanced, higher-value technologies which may well define the future,” Garg said at the 66th ACMA Annual Session.

According to Garg, now time has come for India to progress from exporting conventional components to exporting advanced technologies, engineering capability, and innovation.

“While India has successfully built scale, time has come now to accelerate and leapfrog towards greater self-reliance by building domestic capabilities to design, develop and manufacture future technologies, including semiconductor chips, EV battery cells, power electronics and much more,” Garg added.

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Over the past three decades, vehicles have evolved from predominantly mechanical systems to intelligent, connected and increasingly software-defined mobility solutions.

“Customer expectations have changed dramatically. Standards for quality, safety, reliability and performance are higher than ever before. There are many learnings which all of us have experienced while working with the supplier ecosystem of the key global automotive markets,” said Garg.

“We learned, scale and platform thinking from the US, precision engineering from Germany, supply-chain depth and speed from China, lean manufacturing and Just-in-Time systems from Japan, and technology with rapid execution from South Korea,” he explained.

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India should develop domestic capability in semiconductors, rare-earth magnets, power electronics, battery cells and other critical technologies, said Garg. “We need to invest even more in R&D and innovation, because technology ownership is essential for strategic independence,” he added.

Stronger R&D can improve product architecture, materials and manufacturing processes, allowing companies to deliver affordability without compromising on quality, safety and performance, said Garg.