India's largest auto parts maker, Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd (SAMIL), sees a fresh growth opportunity in the expansion of Chinese automakers beyond mainland China, after Sona Comstar identified the trend as a key business opportunity.
Motherson's management told Mint that while the company's business inside China has been majorly with non-Chinese carmakers, it is well positioned to support Chinese companies as they establish factories in markets such as Europe, Southeast Asia and Latin America.
Chinese automakers such as BYD Co. Ltd, SAIC Motor Corp. Ltd and Chery Automobile Co. Ltd are accelerating their global expansion, even as Western carmakers, including General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co., Stellantis N.V. and Honda Motor Co. Ltd, scale back their electric-vehicle plans and take write-offs.
BYD is setting up a plant in Hungary, with plans to start operations this year. BYD also set up a plant in Brazil in 2025, from where it is expanding operations.
Other carmakers such as Chongqing Changan and Xpeng are either exploring the establishment of plants in Europe or have already begun assembling models. Chinese carmakers are exploring localization in the region, as imports from China come under scrutiny from regulators and governments in the region.
The trend is also creating indirect opportunities for global supplier units based in India. Tenneco Clean Air India, the local arm of US-based Tenneco, said its European sister firm's increasing engagement with Chinese players could open the possibility of working on certain parts for the Indian unit as well.
However, analysts say Chinese carmakers’ global expansion could create a sizeable new revenue stream only for Indian component makers with an established international manufacturing footprint.
Business opportunity
Pankaj Mital, wholetime director and president at Motherson, said the company's major business inside China is supporting international non-Chinese carmakers' operations within the country.
“In China, we have mainly been supporting our international car makers. Then those companies also started supporting many Chinese carmakers as they have evolved. They also use our products. And they also see us as a potential partner when they come from China into many different parts of the world,” Mital said.
“If they start manufacturing in other countries, they will also need partners who can make it in that country and support them. So we could be a partner to them also in those countries as they grow,” he added.
The commentary from Motherson mirrors the scale of the opportunity alluded to by Sona Comstar managing director and chief executive Vivek Vikram Singh in an interview on 8 May with Mint.
“When Chinese OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) set up factories outside is when our opportunity truly arises in the driveline business," Singh said. “We do have a duty disadvantage. Exporting from India to China is not really viable with the current geopolitical and duty environment,” he added.
Business from Chinese carmakers is attracting interest from Indian component makers, given the market's sheer size. According to data from critical minerals consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI), China saw 12.9 million EV sales in 2025, up 20% from the previous year, while Europe totalled 4.3 million, up 33%. North America recorded 1.8 million EV sales, a 4% decline.
Arvind Chandra, chief executive at Tenneco Clean Air India, said the company can gain if Chinese carmakers increase their engagement with sister companies in Europe and other regions where they will expand.
“We don't like to compete with our European sister divisions. Just exports-wise, there is enough business to be had, where we can collaborate with each other, we can become a child part supplier, subassembly supplier to our Teneco sister divisions,” Chandra said.
Execution hurdle
Analysts say the opportunity will come with a caveat, as it will be very selective. “As they establish manufacturing outside China, they will progressively need supplier ecosystems closer to their plants. This is driven not only by logistics and cost but increasingly by localization requirements, rules of origin, tariffs and the need to reduce supply-chain concentration,” said Harshvardhan Sharma, group head - automotive technology and innovation at Nomura Consulting.
“This creates an interesting opening for Indian component companies. Many of the larger Indian suppliers have spent the last two decades building manufacturing and engineering footprints outside India. They can potentially offer Chinese OEMs a combination of competitive cost, established global manufacturing systems and an alternative sourcing base outside China,” he added.
He noted that Chinese automakers have very strong relationships with their domestic suppliers, and many of those suppliers will also internationalize alongside them.
“Indian suppliers will therefore have to win business on technology, cost, quality and proximity rather than merely because they are outside China,” Sharma added.
Motherson has over 475 facilities in 47 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Africa, West Asia, Asia Pacific and Australia, while Sona Comstar has 12 manufacturing facilities across India, the US, China and Mexico.