A Government Facilitation Centre (GFC) for the electric vehicle sector will be launched shortly in Coimbatore in association with 25 companies, said Srinivasan, Senior Advisor, EV Sector, FaMe TN – Department of MSME.
“Tamil Nadu is one of the early movers in the EV domain where over 50% of the vehicles made in the State had been sold. It is now a logical step for companies to establish cell manufacturing units with one of the four companies committing itself to invest in Chennai while the other three are investing just across the borders of the State. The government is also creating a very comprehensive EV sector roadmap to compete with the world and not within India,” he said at the EV summit organised by the Tamil Nadu Technology Development and Promotion Centre of Confederation of Indian Industry on Wednesday.
“Another GFC is for setting up a Vehicle Testing Facility for which the location is being identified. The third is for the manufacturing of battery cells with support labs around it and the last GFC is on telematics,” Mr. Srinivasan added. The government is emphasising skilling and upskilling of employees, an upgrade in the curriculum for polytechnic and engineering colleges, he pointed out.
Shankar Venugopal, VP & Head – Technology, IP and Technical Capability Building, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. , Suresh D, Chairman, EV Summit, CEO & Group CTO, Spark Minda Technical Centre, Minda Corporation Limited, Gopi Sankar, Vice-President & Chief Engineer, Advanced Vehicle Program, Ashok Leyland, among others spoke at the event.
