"E-Mobility In India Is At A Very Interesting Stage Now" : Raghavendra Vaidya, MD and CEO, DTICI

In an interaction with Urvi Shrivastav, Editorial Lead, BW BFSI, BW Businessworld; Raghavendra Vaidya, Managing Director and CEO, Daimler Truck Innovation Center India (DTICI), speaks about the establishment of the company, developments in the e-mobility space, and their contribution in the segment

How did DTICI come to be established?

DTICI came into existence on 1st December 2021, which was also when we split the global Daimler business into two verticals. One is focused on global passenger cars and vans, and second is focused on consumer vehicles including trucks and busses. We were earlier part of MBRDI, which was catering to Daimler across passenger cars and commercial vehicles. DTICI was set up to specifically drive innovation in vehicle engineering.

Given that DTICI is a new company, how are your products different from existing players?

We are different in three ways. First, we have a very sharp focus on vehicle engineering specifically and IT, and none of the other back office functions. Second is how we add value to customers and how we drive innovation within the disciplines of engineering that we are a part of. Third, we have a very clear strategy that is aligned with the headquarters, which focuses on which areas we can take complete accountability from India.

What is the state of the art technology you are utilising now to meet these goals?

In vehicle software we have teams which work on advanced driver assistance, which is level two and level three autonomous vehicles. This is where we develop the safety system for trucks, here we use advanced censor technology. We are also developing the next generation HMI (Human Machine Interface) for the trucks. We have a team focused on enhancing truck connectivity to the cloud continuously and then develop services around that. In IT, our focus is on advanced analytics, focusing on data science. For instance, how do we price our spare parts, how do we reduce the warranty cost etc are some of the issues we tackle.

What can we expect in the coming decade in the two wheeler segment?

We can expect development in the passenger segment, especially smaller cars if we leave the SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicle) out. If you look at the manufacturers that have the highest market shares in India, they do have the technology to develop electric vehicles because they are all global players. What they are focused on is their ability to sell and develop a charging infrastructure. Once that is fixed, you can see different variants of electric vehicles on the road. The last ones to catch up will be heavy duty vehicles due to technological roadblocks. By the time this issue is addressed we will see challenges in distribution of energy, given that we are predominantly coal and hydro based generation.

How have you seen e-mobility evolve in India and what are your thoughts on its implementation going forward?

E-Mobility in India is at a very interesting stage now. If you look at the main challenges for e-mobility, the first is the total cost of overshare of battery electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. However, going forward another challenge that we will face is the availability of the battery. For the first time in many years, batteries have costed more which is due to the supply and demand gap that exists. In India, we struggle with charging infrastructure but in that aspect as well, I think we are making a great progress across the country. I expect to see growth addressing these challenges over the years . But what is unique to India is mobility in the two wheeler industry. A lot of new players have entered in this space and investments being made are transforming traditional two wheelers to electric. My personal view is that in India we are moving efficiently towards the progress of electric mobility.

What about DTICI, how are you helping the electric mobility space?

We are an engineering and IT center, catering to the global business of Daimler truck. Most of the development we do in electric mobility is for our global business which is centered in North America with Portland as the headquarter. In Europe, Germany is the headquarter, and in Asia it is Japan. Our focus right now is to create zero emission technology for global businesses, and not so much for the local truck business. We contribute end to end, right from designing electric vehicles, to developing software parts. The components of electric vehicles are simpler to develop than internal combustion engines from a mechanical standpoint. But from a software standpoint it is extremely complicated, because we have limited power in the truck which has to be used judiciously. This is in turn controlled by software, which is where we come in.