Tamil Nadu Aims to Lead in Electric Vehicle Manufacturing, To Compete Globally

Tamil Nadu Aims to Lead in Electric Vehicle Manufacturing, To Compete Globally
“Tamil Nadu is aiming to be a major Electric Vehicles manufacturing destination for the World. A detailed roadmap is being created to address the manufacturing, services, and technology segments in this space. The idea is to identify areas and gaps, create action plans and establish associations with the industry and institutions,” said Mr Thiru Srinivasan, Senior Advisor, EV Sector, FaMe TN – Department of MSME, Govt. of Tamil Nadu in his special address at the EV Summit organized by the Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre of CII here today.
“Tamil Nadu is one of the early movers in the EV Space domain with over 50% of the EVs sold made in Tamil Nadu. It is now a logical step for companies to establish cell manufacturing units with one of the four companies committed to invest in Chennai while the other three are investing just across the borders of the state. The Government is also creating a very comprehensive EV sector roadmap with the aim to compete with the World and not within India,” he added.
“We encourage industries to come together for building and supporting the EV sector. A Government Facilitation Centre (GFC) is being shortly launched in Coimbatore in association with 25 companies who have come together. Another GFC is setting up a Vehicle Testing Facility for which the location is being identified. The third is the manufacturing of battery cells with support labs around it and the last GFC is on Telematics,” he added.
“Apart from these, the government is emphasizing on skilling and upskilling of employees, an upgrade in the curriculum for Polytechnic and Engineering colleges,” he pointed out.
“Critical resources like Lithium etc., will be mined not just from the earth but from deep sea and asteroids as they have an abundance of rich minerals that are critical for cell manufacturing. India in the recent past has announced 5.9 million tonnes of Lithium deposits in the J&K region,” said Dr Shankar Venugopal, VP & Head – Technology, IP and Technical Capability Building, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd in his address.
“Today, the cost of storing electricity in a lithium battery is hardly 10% of what it was 10 years back. This will bring down the Total Ownership Cost (TCO). The future ahead is a convergence of technologies and new mobility. This convergence comprises of three Industries : Traditional Automotive, Energy & Power and Infrastructure and this is the ideal time for us to step in, innovate and bring out differentiated products for the global markets,” he added.
“It is estimated that passenger vehicles will have electronic content of over 40% by 2030 compared to the 20% today. Last year, India had over 1 million EV vehicles plying on the road with 80% constituted of 2-Wheelers and 3-Wheelers. These sales were made possible due to the low cost of ownership when compared to the PVs and CVs which are still high,” said Mr Suresh D, Chairman, EV Summit, CEO & Group CTO, Spark Minda Technical Centre, Minda Corporation Limited in his theme address.
“For the EV industry to pick up pace, affordability solutions specific to the market is the key. We need to look at more affordability, localization, R&D to enable us touch 10 million vehicles by 2030 from the current 1 million today. We hope the Central Government will cover hydrogen powered vehicles and support 3-Wheelers and 2-Wheelers also as we move away from FAME II to FAME III. Even the respective state governments are pushing more EVs on the road which is a good sign,” he added.
“There are two major challenges that the EV industry faces. One is the infrastructure set up be it for electric or hydrogen vehicles and the other is the development of technology. Charging infrastructure is one key aspect that needs to be looked. There are range anxiety issues when one travels in electric vehicles unlike fossil-based fuels infrastructure. The other challenge is developing technology like swap technology of batteries, self-charging or high speed-charging or even roof-charging like the electric train to overcome the limitations of infrastructure,” said Mr Gopi Sankar, Vice President & Chief Engineer, Advanced Vehicle Program, Ashok Leyland.
In his special address, Dr Srinivasa Venu, Joint Managing Director, Powergear Sustainability said, “Sustainability is the buzz word. We are witnessing a very strong growth and this trend would positively continue in the coming years,”.
#CII #EVSummit #electricvehicles #ev