At least four Indian auto component makers—Samvardhana Motherson, Varroc, Tenneco Clean Air and Sona Comstar—are quickening the pace of vehicle development following a push by automakers to launch cars faster in the wake of Chinese competition.
As Tata Motors PV, Mahindra and Mahindra and Renault look at China as a benchmark and target shorter product development cycles, auto component makers are stepping up investments in technology and processes to help speed up product development and execution.
Industry executives and experts acknowledged the challenge of upgrading entire supply chains to meet compressed timelines but said it has become necessary because global automakers are increasingly prioritizing speed to market, forcing component makers to keep up.
“We have invested over the years in simulation tools and capability as one enabler of product development time,” Arjun Jain, wholetime director and CEO—Business I at Varroc, a Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar-based supplier of lighting solutions and EV components, told Mint. “Recently, we developed a passenger car lighting solution from scratch within 11 months, which would typically take about 18-24 months. While this is an exception today, I would expect this to become the norm going forward.”
Jain suggested that product development time could collapse by over a third.
Vivek Vikram Singh, managing director and group CEO at Gurugram-based Sona Comstar, said the company has been aware about Chinese capacity for over the past decade.
“Because we have been competing with them, we have also been learning why they are so quick or how they are so quick,” Singh said. “The industry has to improve its agility as by the time Indian suppliers have responded with RFQ (request for quotation), Chinese have sent their samples. So that is a problem.”
Speed is crucial
The Chinese have harnessed the capability of AI and automation in the prototyping phase and then the prototype-to-sample stage, Singh added, noting that the company has been upgrading its tech to improve speed. The country's largest component maker said in its FY26 annual report that increasing product development speed has become crucial.
“Competitive intensity is rising, driven by new market entrants, particularly from China, and the growing importance of scale, cost competitiveness, and speed to market,” Motherson said in its annual report.
The automotive industry is witnessing a fundamental shift and is accelerating product development cycles in response to evolving customer expectations and rapid technological advancements, Arvind Chandra, CEO at Tenneco Clean Air India, which develops suspension and clean air-related products, told Mint.
“We are enabling faster product development through early customer engagement, close collaboration with OEM engineering teams, and by leveraging our India R&D centres alongside Tenneco's global engineering network. Our advanced engineering, digital simulation, testing and on-site validation capabilities enable us to shorten development cycles while maintaining uncompromising standards of quality, safety and performance,” Chandra added.
The key investments by companies to develop and test products faster appear to be in digital technology capabilities and simulation tools. According to Nomura Consulting, research indicates that leading Chinese manufacturers conduct about 65% of their testing through simulation and virtual prototypes, compared with 40-50% in other regions.
Experts suggested that carmakers will have to involve component players early on if they want to reduce the time taken to develop products.
“Suppliers cannot respond to shorter OEM timelines merely by compressing the same activities into fewer months. They will have to change the way products are designed, validated and industrialized,” said Harshvardhan Sharma, group head of automotive technology & innovation at Nomura Consulting. “As OEM programmes move from around 48 months towards 33-36 months, component manufacturers will increasingly need to begin engineering work before every vehicle-level specification has been frozen.”
Catching up
Mint reported in January that Indian carmakers have reached parity with European, Japanese and Korean automakers and are increasingly catching up with the speed of Chinese carmakers in rolling out new products.
“It used to be five years, with Inglo (Mahindra's vehicle platform). We are now at 33 months or so, but the notion is we have to keep collapsing that, there is no question,” Nalinikanth Gollagunta, CEO of Mahindra’s automotive division, said in an interview in November.
Earlier, Renault's management noted that it is accelerating its vehicle rollout and development to gain market share.
“We have two big differences. The first one is that five years ago, we were not able to develop cars in less than five years. Now we are developing cars in less than two years. It is a game-changer,” Renault Group’s chief growth officer Fabrice Cambolive told Mint in January.
Experts suggest that vehicle development for the Indian market, including that of foreign OEMs, typically ranges from 36 to 40 months, depending on the product. According to a November 2024 update from Boston Consulting Group, Chinese OEMs could roll out new products within 24 months.
However, the push to reduce component development time is not without its challenges. Singh of Sona Comstar explained that smaller suppliers may struggle to meet the pressure of faster timelines.
“The only thing that is a bottleneck is sometimes tier 2, tier 3 suppliers. Sometimes it is capital equipment. Machine lead time is still very, very elevated,” Singh said.