The use of high-end software in automobile design and R&D has created an edge over their European and American competitors. Many of the car makers are expanding their research and design services which will help them to launch newer models in the market quickly and efficiently in future.
In the year 2009, with the investment of Rs.4.8 billion, Mahindra and Mahindra will open its new automobile design and development facility called the Mahindra Research Valley (MRV) which will be spread over 150 acres in Mahindra World City in Chennai. Initially the R&D facility will cater to M&M's design needs and later they will also consider of offering the similar high-end work for other OEMs.
Presently Tata Motors has six R&D centers that span India, South Korea, Spain and the UK. INCAT, now an arm of Tata Technologies which conducts specialized R&D work for the Tata Group and others was acquired by Tata's in 2006.
Recently, Tata Motors bought a minority stake in Pininfarina- an Italian car design firm.
In April this year, French major Dassault Systems tied up with Argentum Engineering Design's (AED) Centre for Excellence to train automobile engineers who would design, test, validate and manufacture new vehicle models for domestic and international OEMs.
According to a Nasscom report, the automobile and aerospace design industry is currently estimated at around Rs 6 trillion and out of which in which India's current share is valued between Rs.124 billion and $5 billion annually. And this figure is estimated to increase over the next two to three years. By 2020, the global spending on engineering services is expected to touch around Rs.45 trillion.
Some of the high-end software's like 3D, PLM, and V5 which are provided by the provided by majors software like Dassault Systemes, Siemens and IBM have revolutionized the way new models of vehicles are designed, tested, and manufactured.
The Indian car designers have contributed designs for the models like the Swift, Dzire and SX4, Maruti Suzuki but still rely on Suzuki, Japan for training its engineers.
Presently, India enjoys a reputation as a provider of low-end research work that revolves around small cars. It may not be an easy journey for India to becoming the world's hub for automobile design and development may not be easy but with plenty of opportunities and competition it is not impossible again.
