Dr V Sumantran, Chairman, Celeris Technologies
Projects across the world like the Boston Corridor and Bay Area, have one common set of building blocks. They start with a good spectrum of educational institutions. Dr Narayan mentioned about not just an educational system but also the importance of social environment that attracts young people. These are big contributors to an economy. To be able to scale jobs, we need a trained labour force along with adequate infrastructure to operate with efficiency. Finally, it should be an environment conducive to attract capital.
In all these measures, Tamil Nadu excels. Being happy just about this will be like
limiting us to seeing the glass that is half full. The more challenging and interesting part should be looking at the glass that is half empty. We need to think where we should take our state and country over in the next couple of decades.
Building an EV ecosystem
This is the inflection point for the global auto industry as they are pivoting towards electric mobility. The Electric Vehicles (EV) business can develop only if there is an ecosystem. The full cycle of this industry starts with an ability to produce core items. Cells for an electric vehicle industry is like memory and processor chips to electronics. Almost 99 per cent of vehicles sold in India have cells imported from China. We need to address this deficiency. Making cells is not a small-scale industry. It requires significant commitment of capital. Fortunately, TN has candidate companies that are interested in making cells in India. This ensures that the most fundamental building block of electric vehicles, battery cells, can be made in India.
The ecosystem depends on a whole range of other components also. The state’s large manufacturing footprint of automotive components will be valuable to address the needs of the EV industry. Manufacturers in TN mirror what is happening globally where high volume manufacturing is beginning to pivot to electric vehicles. This will boost the state’s capability to support electrification of mobility.
Whenever you develop a new industry, at the end of the day, if you don’t control the platform development capability, we become nothing more than a supplier state. But when you start to control it, you not only determine the course of the economic trajectory but also elevate the levels of skills necessary for integration.
TN is already home to largest two-wheeler plants of Ola and Ather. Ampere is another important two-wheeler player, putting up a million-scooter plant in Ranipet. Ashok Leyland is also planning a factory focusing on EV manufacture in TN.
Need for charging infrastructure
You cannot have an EV ecosystem without charging infrastructure. There is a lot of work ahead of us to roll out the kind of infrastructure that will be needed to tap the potential of this industry. Harnessing the instinct for frugal engineering, an open source
technology for EV charging at a cost of Rs 3500 has been developed. Highly scalable, operable by smart phones and capable of doing analytics, this is an affordable Made in India solution.
We need the right grid that is predominantly based on renewables. India has a target of 40-45 per cent of energy through renewables by 2030. As EV industry matures, we will have parallel growth in renewable power.
The glass is still half empty and there is lot to do. We can aspire to become the next generation Detroit of the east if we are able to harness this and not only cater to the evolving market in India but significantly to the emerging markets across the globe. A lot of the building blocks are ready, all that is needed now is our spirit, conviction and effort to achieve that goal.
