BT-NASSCOM virtual roundtable: 'An automobile will be an i-pad on four-wheels'

India’s auto industry is all set to prepare for long-impending electric vehicle (EV) adoption as issues ranging from climate change to fluctuating oil prices continue to push consumers toward alternatives to combustion engines. But is India realistically on its way to achieve its targets? At Business Today-NASSCOM virtual roundtable, industry leaders answer questions like these and more.

People have woken up to the fact that electrification is something that seriously should be considered, Samir Yajnik, Executive Director, Electra EV says. “As we come out of the second wave of the pandemic, we find that suddenly there's a huge pull from the market. Before the pandemic, electric four-wheelers were in very low demand. But suddenly the pandemic has somehow woken people up to the fact that we need a pollution-free environment,” he added.

He says that the demand is huge while the industry continues to face issues on the supply side. “Government’s FAME policy has woken people up towards electrification. After the second wave of COVID-19, EVs have seen a demand surge but India’s hardly ‘aatmanirbhar’ when it comes to EV batteries,” he added.

The experts also feel that the automobiles of the future will see a convergence of new technologies.

“In the past perhaps in an automobile space 15 to 20 per cent of total components were software. Currently it's 30 per cent and by 2025-2030, it is expected 60 per cent of an automobile will be completely software-driven,” KS Viswanathan, Vice President (Industry Initiatives), NASSCOM said.

“An automobile will be an i-pad on four-wheels," said Viswanathan.

He added that technology will play a huge role in automotive space going forward and India has a huge role to play in this transition.

Technology solution providers say that connectivity will be the key in an automobile. “It is really becoming a software-defined industry. Just like you build apps on a phone, similarly automotive manufacturing will be like an open innovation platform. Operating system architecture is going to change massively,” Kishore Patil, Co-Founder, MD & CEO at KPIT said.

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