[Visran]

Tata Motors, Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki have signed a pact to jointly develop major parts for all-electric cars. The three mainstream automakers will use each others’ technical know-how for jointly developing motor, transmission and other components.

The report says that the tripartite alliance is open-ended and entails an investment of INR 22-25 crore. The Indian government will invest an equal amount under the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing) programme that was announced last year to pace up adoption and manufacturing of hybrid and electrified vehicles in the country.

In a conversation with the business publication, Arvind Mathew, CEO, Mahindra Reva, said: “It will take at least one-and-a-half years before we see something. The software and integration part will remain exclusive to the three companies while motor and transmission knowhow will be shared.”

The alliance is about the technologies only. How the developed technologies are put to use, will be up to the particular automaker. The alliance partners will have their own softwares and platform to implement the electric car tech and parts jointly developed.

Source: http://indianautosblog.com/2016/02/m...#ixzz3zjrl2qyl

[volkman10]

Maruti Suzuki quits consortium to develop electric cars.

The announcement comes just after Maruti’s top leadership, including R&D head C.V. Raman and executive director for sales and marketing R.S. Kalsi visited Japan last week!

This means the so-called project xEV, which was supported by the government of India, is likely to be a non-starter even though some members of the consortium said the group will be reconstituted.

During the initial discussions, Suzuki wanted a majority of research work to happen in Japan and other members of the consortium did not agree to it

There is a lot of collaboration happening between India and Japan in areas such as hybrids, cleaner fuel, etc., and that leaves little room for us to invest in the consortium.
it remains unclear if people from Maruti will be involved in the Suzuki-Toyota partnership.

Source

[RSR]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Maruti Suzuki quits consortium to develop electric cars.

This is certainly not good for the market from the hybridisation and electrification perspective.

From Maruti Suzuki's point of view, it must be "the Toyota effect", I guess. Why invest millions into joint R&D with partners with a different work culture (who would most certainly turn out to be direct competitors), when Suzuki can obtain royalty payments from their Indian subsidiary for what mostly happens to be Toyota-developed technology???

The only silver lining is that technology found in the Prius may trickle down to Maruti Suzuki's A & B segment cars a fair bit faster than what collaboration between the now estranged trio would have achieved.

It remains to be seen if Mahindra & Tata stick together despite Maruti Suzuki's sudden (but not entirely unexpected) withdrawal.

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by RSR

From Maruti Suzuki's point of view, it must be "the Toyota effect", I guess. Why invest millions into joint R&D with partners with a different work culture (who would most certainly turn out to be direct competitors), when Suzuki can obtain royalty payments from their Indian subsidiary for what mostly happens to be Toyota-developed technology???

Agreed. I believe Suzuki made the whole Toyota deal only to tap into their hybrid and electric vehicle research. Would be foolish of them to again invest money into developing the same for the Indian market alone.

Originally Posted by RSR

It remains to be seen if Mahindra & Tata stick together despite Maruti Suzuki's sudden (but not entirely unexpected) withdrawal.

They don't have a choice, IMHO. The world is moving at a faster pace than these companies can manage to keep chasing individually.