India’s Tata Group is planning a foray into semiconductor manufacturing as the coffee-to-cars conglomerate seeks to mitigate the pain from the global chip crisis as well as reduce dependence on imports.
Besides making chips, plans to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles will also be announced soon, N. Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons Pvt, the group’s main holding company, said at an event in Mumbai, India, yesterday.
Chandrasekaran in Tata Motors Ltd’s annual report in June last year had spoken about evaluating partnerships with companies in India and Europe to manufacture cells and batteries.
The initiatives by the US$103 billion Tata Group are aligned to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempts to make India a leader in semiconductor production and reduce its reliance on imports amid global chain disruptions.
Besides Tata, several international chip giants, including Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), are exploring India as a potential manufacturing base.
Automakers around the globe are grappling with a semiconductor shortage, exacerbated by COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in China, which have hobbled the automobile and the electronics sector by raising input costs for makers.
Volvo Car AB has said it would have a hard time meeting its production forecast for this year due to issues procuring a specific type of semiconductor, while Renault SA earlier this month halted production of its new electric vehicle because of a lack of components.
Tata Group’s foray into semiconductor making will also help its Tata Motors, which makes the Jaguar Land Rover brands and has suffered due to the shortages.
Tata Motors, which has a 70 percent share in India’s nascent electric vehicle market, also announced plans to launch its first-ever pure electric vehicle by 2025.
The five-seater Avinya is to have no gasoline variants, Shailesh Chandra, managing director at Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles told reporters at a briefing yesterday.
Tata Motors currently sells two battery-powered models, the Nexon EV and Tigor EV, but they also have variants that run on fossil fuels.
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