Tata Motors is gearing up to strengthen its R&D with fresh hiring as well as upskilling of the current employees this fiscal year in order to scale up capabilities across various business verticals, including the electric vehicle segment, as per a top company official.
In the EV space, the company is looking to enhance its expertise in the area of battery packs and vehicle architecture, among others. "As far as hiring in R&D is concerned we are going for major hiring, especially this year, but there is also another area which we have looked into very deeply and that is upskilling the current engineers within R&D," Tata Motors President Passenger Vehicle and Electric Vehicles Shailesh Chandra said in an analyst call.
“It is going to be a big component of how the company is planning to really expand its R&D base,” he added.
Growth aspirations and business plans
The Mumbai-based auto major, in line with its growth aspirations and business plans for the next few years, is hiring across various verticals like advanced engineering, product development, supply chain, operations and commercial functions at different levels. Chandra noted that there would be enhanced collaborations with other group entities, including JLR going ahead to enhance capabilities.
"There is a lot of collaboration which will happen with various Tata companies, including JLR. So capabilities will not be limited to within Tata Motors but also seeing the opportunities of synergies with JLR as well as other Tata companies, which have a lot of capability in the area of software. So, these are the areas where we are focusing on," Chandra stated.
In the EV space, Chandra said the company has started to develop capabilities in the area of battery packs, motor design, and new architectures, among other critical functionalities.
On a query regarding synergies in the EV space, he said: "We have really looked at each of the segments in CVs as well as PV, fleet as well as the personal segment, and we are trying to see where potential synergies can be in the area of the motor as far as in the area of batteries, especially the chemistry that we would like to choose, the form factors and as well as the CE rating because of the fast-charging capability and all."