Renault plans to make India a hub for electric vehicle components

New Delhi: Renault SA has placed orders for manufacturing electric motors and transmission parts for its electric vehicles with one Indian automotive component manufacturer and have plans to make India a manufacturing hub for electric vehicle (EV) components in the long term. The local unit of the French car maker is also working on developing EVs for the global market in Chennai, two people aware of the developments said.

This is the first time any global vehicle maker with operations in India has given an order to an Indian company for making parts of EV which will be exported to the European and American countries and also possibly to China.

One of the companies that got the contract through a global tender process is Rico Auto Industries Ltd, a Gurugram based two-wheeler and four-wheeler parts maker. The names of the other auto parts maker could not be ascertained.

According to one of the two people cited above, Renault wants India to become a hub for EV parts. This is not something new for the company as it also exports internal combustion engines and other parts from India.

“The company wants to make India a hub for its electric vehicle component manufacturing since the cost is less and the Union government is expected to give exemptions and subsidies for manufacturing parts of these vehicles which requires a different ecosystem under the second avatar of the FAME scheme,” said person aware of the development requesting not to be named.

Renault is one of the leading vehicle manufacturers in the domain of EVs globally and has already invested heavily in electric mobility.

Later this year, the French car maker will launch the electric variant of its small car Kwid in China and Mint reported earlier that the company has plans to bring the electric version of Kwid in India as well given the infrastructure available.

According to the second person aware of the development, Renault has been working on its plan to make India one of the development hubs for its EVs globally. Its R&D centre in Chennai is a part of the car maker’s global plan for developing EVs and work has already been started by the company.

A detailed questionnaire sent to Renault India remained unanswered till press time.

Other foreign car makers are also looking to use India as a hub for manufacturing the component of electric vehicles which is a huge statement for the automobile sector in India, according to the first person mentioned above.

“Component manufacturers are the bedrock of the industry and the Renault already has experience of exporting components from India. So, this step by the company does not surprise me. It is a very significant step for the electric vehicle component manufacturing in India,” said Puneet Gupta, associate director, vehicle sales forecasting, IHS Automotive.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.