Arvind Goel, vice chairman of Tata AutoComp Systems, urges the industry to ignore the worries about the obsolescence of internal combustion technology and focus on tapping export demand.
14 Mar 2025 | 869 Views | By Radhika Dave
Tata AutoComp expects to double the share of exports in its revenue in the next five years: That’s the word coming in from the Vice Chairman of India's second largest auto component firm. “Today we are at 16-17%. We will try to double it to 30% in the next 5 ...
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Tata AutoComp expects to double the share of exports in its revenue in the next five years: That’s the word coming in from the Vice Chairman of India's second largest auto component firm. “Today we are at 16-17%. We will try to double it to 30% in the next 5 years,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of the Bharat Mobility Global Expo 2025.
Goel said that the incremental exports could be driven by both EV and ICE categories. “All ICE engine suppliers in India should be able to export. Indian ICE suppliers should not worry at all. India is growing, and hence ICE requirement in India is not coming down in the next decade or so.
Plus, you have a huge export opportunity,” he said. He explained that if the automobile market grows at an average of 8-9% a year, there will be a significant increase in the number of vehicles. Hence, he pointed out, the ICE category would also grow at least till 2035. Moreover, as global companies look at transitioning to electric vehicles, many are turning to India to fill the gaps when it comes to ICE engines, he noted.
India is considered by many as the last man standing when it comes to internal combustion engines. Hence, even as 30% of Tata AutoComp’s turnover comes from its EV business, the company is also betting big on ICE and exports. Goel said the Indian autocomponents industry is uniquely placed to tap export demand.
“This is the first time that we are at a similar level technologically as the rest of the world. Huge export opportunities will come in. The industry should concentrate majorly on exports,” he noted. Meanwhile, Tata AutoComp’s products are mostly technology agnostic: It has only two products meant exclusively for ICE vehicles - the exhaust system and the lead acid battery.
Late last year, India’s minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal, had urged the sector to target a five-fold increase in its exports to $100 billion by 2030. In 2023-24, the industry had total revenue of Rs 6.14 lakh crore ($74.1 billion), with exports accounting for $21.2 billion. Imports during the year came in at $20.9 billion.
Localisation
Goel said his second area of focus will be localisation, particularly for advanced products such as dual-clutch transmission and Low Voltage Differential Signalling or LVDS cameras. “We are the only company in India which makes it,” Goel said, alluding to DCTs.
“Still 40-45% of it is imported, mostly from Europe. The technology for those items is not available in India,” he added. “Even the cameras for the vehicles – both LVDS cameras, and others – we are the only company who will start producing [them in India], starting in the second quarter of next financial year,” he added.
The Tata Group-backed auto components major is confident of an increased level of localisation in the industry on the back of government incentives and the PLI Scheme. The PLI-AUTO Scheme is expected to boost manufacturing of Advanced Automotive Technology (AAT) Products and promote deep localisation of AAT products and enable creation of domestic as well as global supply chain.
Goel added that the Indian government needs to save foreign exchange, and therefore, the industry must step forward to reduce the reliance of imports by developing products locally. That said, he was of the opinion that some items will always have to be imported. “Nobody makes magnets other than in China, or rare earths. So we will have to see how to manage those supply chains,” he noted