Page 60 - SAEINDIA Magazine December 2020

LIGHTWEIGHT

Feature

INTERVIEW BARUN BHARADWAJ, REGIONAL HEAD OF Volkswagen. But can Tesla grow to be
AUTOMOTIVE OEMS — INDIA, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA, HENKEL INDIA an Apple in the automotive industry?
I think they will so there is going to a
niche in the market. The mass-market
What is your view on the leadership they have in EV will be continue to see strong
electric vehicle OEMs the auto industry. This dominance by legacy players.
like Tesla, Fisker, Faraday correlates exactly with
Future and Nikola? Are the programs that we are They (legacy players) are building
you also working with working on together with infrastructure silently and have
start-ups? Volkswagen. Volkswagen different problems to solve. When
is fully focused on EVs and they start producing, their concerns
This is a proud factor for
us. You mentioned a couple of ‘WHAT EV OEMS NEED FROM NOW TILL THEY HIT BIG VOLUMES IS THAT
names, especially the THEY NEED TO ACCELERATE TECHNOLOGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE
start-ups coming out of California
and there are also a few from DEVELOPMENT TO HIT THE COST POINT THAT THEY WANT TO ACHIEVE.’
China now. Our penetration rates
with these start-ups are very high. will be a great challenger for many are how to produce in several hundred
As regards the approach between start-ups. thousand units and at a certain lower
the start-ups Of course, the start-ups are fortunate cost standpoint because until that
and conventional auto leaders, to have had good investors and will inflection point they are not ready to
the Volkswagen challenge has it continue to keep their niche. Can a get up to the market where they are
that by 2030, they are building Tesla become a Volkswagen? Clearly, selling IC-engine vehicles.
infrastructure so that they can the answer is no, or my hypothesis At present, the impact of EV sales
continue to maintain is that they would never become is not significant. What EV OEMs

our customers. We ran through the case studies of all the industry needs to create additional infrastructure or
the successful case studies we had and in most of these a different infrastructure which is cost intensive. “Now
projects, we were able to save weight of over 30kg,” there is a trade-off that the OEMs are looking at — do
reveals Bharadwaj. they focus on building an EV or focus on utilising other
technologies that can help reduce the weight versus
He acknowledges the fundamental difference between
how it (lightweighting) has worked out in the Western actually moving to aluminium?” queries Bharadwaj.
countries compared to India. In those advanced markets, Structural adhesives and inserts
OEMs started to adopt lighter weight materials like So how does the German chemical major plan to
aluminium and magnesium quite significantly in their assist OEMs in India in their lightweighting initiatives?
vehicles rather early on.“ But in India, it is still very Bharadwaj says, the company offers two broad solutions.
largely limited. Even Mercedes-Benz, which imports First is the structural adhesive that eliminates the welding
through CKD, has only started to do this now; this process, which typically increases weight. Replacing the
happened during the COVID-19 period. They have started metal with structural adhesive helps cover the entire
to get most of their doors, which are either aluminium or surface area; therefore, the load distribution is much
GI (galvanised iron), but prior to that it was all steel.”
better than the welding process and also helps avoid
One of the prime reasons for Indian OEMs to continue any breakages. Also it adds just 1gm compared to 50gm
to use steel is not just only because of the cost factor, application of metal. Clearly, there is much to be gained
but also the technology aspects. Steel technology, with this process.
which is one of Indian industry’s strengths for several Second is the use of structural inserts. “The solution is to
decades now, is well established. In case of aluminium,
have the OEMs transform more to a hollow section and

58 DECEMBER 2020 MOBILITY ENGINEERING