Electric vehicles are disrupting the automobile market. However, they have brought major disruptions on the manufacturing side as well. To understand it better, Sulajja Firodia Motwani, Founder & CEO, Kinetic Green gave us some background, “Around 40-50 years ago, a trend of manufacturing its own engines began amongst OEMs in India. Even today, most of the car manufacturers build their own engines. Therefore, investments into manufacturing facilities are heavy.”
So, how is EVs manufacturing different? Elaborating on it, she says, “Firstly, EVs contain very few components as compared to IC engine vehicles. Also, EVs are more about software and electronics, so the whole perspective towards manufacturing changes. It enables manufacturers to adopt the asset light manufacturing philosophy.”
What is asset light manufacturing?
Replying to this question, she answers, “Basically, OEMs invest in design of the product, setting up the manufacturing process, selecting & developing right supply base and then of course, assembling and testing. So, OEMs can focus on design, lightweighting, styling, quality, etc. Rest of the parts are supplied by chosen suppliers as per the design.”
Continuing further she mentions, “Gradually, this trend is catching up in the manufacturing arena. This also enables micro entrepreneurship. However, one must understand that as EVs technology is completely different than conventional engines, supply chain will also be different.”
Speaking about Kinetic Green’s plant, she proudly says, “We have a mother plant at Ahmedanagar, Maharashtra. Here, we receive assemblies from aggregators which are built to print. In the plant, these parts are integrated to into a vehicle. As a result, we have deployed functions such as welding, painting, assembling, integration, etc. We also conduct testing in-house. But none of these require conventional machining processes.”
“Additionally, the asset light manufacturing allows us to set up smaller plants near to the customers.
E.g. welding, paining, etc. can be done at the mother plant while assembling can take place at the plant near market locations. This allows us to be close to the consumers as well as save on logistics cost. Likewise, such ideas can easily be implemented in EVs manufacturing as per the business approach with asset light manufacturing philosophy.”
She continues, “To understand it better, we have to study Chinese market trends. Because of the asset light manufacturing approach, lot of new players have come up on the top positions while conventional leaders in auto segment could not maintain their positions. That is due to their manufacturing approach.”
Lightweighting
There is yet another important aspect. “Ligtweighting,” she emphasises. “It is extremely important in EVs segment as it increases fuel efficiency, which translates into better range. The vehicle can travel few extra miles with the same battery capacity. So, a lot of work is being done in this area, globally.”
Material sciences have a significant role to play here. Adding to it, she says, “Alternative materials such as composites and plastics are extensively used in electric vehicles worldwide.”
“Another advantage of composites and plastics is from the dies & moulds point of view. They require much lesser investment in the tools.”
Speaking about Indian scenario, she says, “In India we are not there yet. Indian OEMs still prefer lighter steel, however the mindsets are changing rapidly and inclination towards these materials will be obvious in days to come.”