There are almost 1 billion motor vehicles worldwide, 700 million of them are cars and this number is expected to more than double, no later than 2030. The Indian Government’s policies and initiatives have been to advancing electric mobility and supporting the increasing use of electric vehicles. In the light of this burgeoning potential, VDMA India along with the VDMA E-Mobility Forum Frankfurt, organised two symposiums on “Electric Mobility – Disrupting Technology in the Transportation Sector” in Pune and on in Bangalore. These two Symposiums were aimed at creating a common platform for working towards the process of putting up a clean and sustainable mobility for India by the year 2030.The event focussed on technological advancements and innovations by German Organisations to bring in alternate solutions for a greener environment in future.
The Symposium at Pune and Bangalore commenced with the welcome address by Rajesh Nath, managing director, VDMA India, who mentioned that there will be 30% Electric Vehicles in India by 2030 in comparison to the current, less than 1 percent of electric vehicles. This was followed by traditional lightning of the lamp ceremony by the VIP guests and speakers at both the cities. After lightning of the lamp, VDMA Annual Publication, Industry Navigator, was released by the VIP guests in both editions. Participants in Pune were addressed by the Chief Guest, Anand Deshpande, senior deputy director & head automotive electronics department, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) who highlighted the government policies for accelerating the adoption of electric vehicles. Also, he touched upon regulations and standards for the Electric Vehicles and the charging environment.
In Bangalore, the Chief Guest was Shivayogi Kalasad, managing director, Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC). He said that, Karnataka is one of the ten states to have taken a lead with a separate EV policy in 2017. He also mentioned that KSRTC is now in the process of adopting 400 electric buses, both for within Bangalore and inter-city mobility. He added that the bane of Indian society is the pride in owning a car and it is seen as a status symbol. The Guest of Honour for the day was, Peter Schmid, head of administration, Consulate General of Germany, Bengaluru, who said that Germany and India will work towards low-carbon mobility. He mentioned that Norway aims to go totally electric by 2025, Denmark by 2030 and Sweden is on the fast track to installing charging points.
The inaugural session in both cities was concluded with the presentation by Christian Kunze, deputy managing director, e-mobility forum, VDMA Frankfurt. He presented on “FVA from Gear Research to Holistic Drivetrain Technology- Precompetitive Research for Electro mobility.” Kunze, who was travelling from Frankfurt, Germany for this Symposium, informed the participants that the Innovation has decreased in the small and medium companies and mostly, the innovators are the big players. He also emphasised the need to think exponentially and not linearly. He said that battery manufacturing is going to be the big business in the future and the need to bring down the cost of lithium-ion batteries is paramount to lower the cost of electric vehicle.
There were total of eight speakers under technical sessions – I & II in Pune and Seven speakers in Bangalore. Many of the companies were present at both the cities of Pune and Bangalore like Schaeffler India, Schuler Pressen, Harting India, Trumpf India, Infineon Technologies India and EAC Consulting. The additional speakers at Pune were from Fronius India and Lenze India and at Bangalore it was Altair India. The speakers at both these cities of Pune and Bangalore focussed on the entire value chain of the Electric Mobility ecosystem, from the Powertrains, power electronics to the charging infrastructure.
The knowledge partner at Pune and Bangalore was EAC International Consulting and Vineet Martin, managing consultant, EAC India gave his presentation on “Impending e-mobility Penetration in India.” He said that India currently has just around 250 public charging stations. The Indian government is helping in securing lithium from Bolivia, whose government claims to have 70 per cent of the world’s reserves. The government is also working on a recycling policy for lithium ion batteries. He also said that the plan of one charging station in a 3 Km range in cities and 25 Km on highways is being worked by the Government.
Schaeffler India was represented by Anirban Mukherji, Head- Automotive at Pune and Harsh Desai, R&D and Project Management-E-Mobility at Bangalore. Their presentation was on “Innovative Solutions meeting stringent Co2 regulation accelerating the market”. They highlighted the effect of Co2 emissions on the environment, including the CAFÉ norms and the Powertrain and Motors technologies suitable to the Indian market.
The Infineon India was represented by Vinay Shenoy, managing director, in Bangalore, who spoke on “Building Strong Local Value Chain for EV”. He said that the battery pack is 43% of the total cost of the car and we should find ways of bringing this cost down. He also said that the E-rickshaws have gained ground in various cities, but not by the bigger players. The imported kits are assembled by small metal fabricators. It makes sense, if such kits are made available locally in India to build a local ecosystem. In Pune, Girish Kamala, Director, Infineon Technologies India made an insightful presentation on “EV Trends and Semiconductor Applications”. He emphasised the importance of Power Electronics in Electric Vehicles, which is gradually making the EV’s more software driven, which would lead to autonomous more.
Markus Roever, e-mobility global sales head, Schuler Pressen, travelled from Germany for this Electric Mobility Symposium and he made a presentation on “The Future of Prismatic Battery Case Production” at both the cities of Pune and Bangalore. He informed the participants on the entire technological process involved in Prismatic battery case production, which is the need of the hour in battery production in India.
The Harting India was represented by Arvind Tekur, director marketing & product management, who spoke on electric mobility solutions at both the cities of Pune and Bangalore. He talked about the entire charging infrastructure solutions from the Harting stable and the customized solutions based on need of the system.
The Trumpf India was represented by the Sachin Gambhire, associate director, business development & marketing, who presented on “Laser Applications in e – mobility” at both the cities of Pune and Bangalore. In his inimitable style, he explained the beneficial of Laser applications in machining Electric Vehicle components, especially the machining of the motors using lasers that considerably improves quality and at low cost.
The speaker Debasis Nandi, president – South & South East Asia, Lenze gave his presentation on “Innovation for e-bus” topic at Pune. He spoke about the Mobile Modular System with AC/DC and DC/DC convertors wide applications with several impressive case studies, especially applicable to the Bus or LCV/HCV sectors.
The Fronius India was represented by Prasad Patil, automotive & robotics Division, who gave the presentation, on “Joining solutions for EV vehicles” at Pune. He gave an excellent demonstration of High Welding Productivity, especially welding of lightweight materials like aluminium, to reduce weight of EV, the need of the hour.
Sushil Mane, director, Altair India presented on the topic of “System-Driven Simulation for e – Mobility” at Bangalore. He gave an impeccable analytical data on the computer aided engineering (CAE) simulation models based on Physical Engineering and Data driven models. The applications of these tools in the designing of the entire range of components in Electric Vehicles, which would accelerate the speed to market and reduce product cycle times.
The Electric Mobility Symposium in both cities had spaces for the partners to display their products and services. The Symposium in Bangalore had a B2B partner, FrankfurtRheinMain, represented by Jay Bedarkar, India manager.
The VDMA Symposium on “Electric Mobility – Disrupting Technology in the Transportation Sector” had a good participation at Pune of 130 delegates while 140 people attended Bangalore edition.
The Symposiums at Pune and Bangalore were moderated by S. Manohar.