The 8th ACMA Atmanirbhar Excellence Awards and Technology Summit, organised by The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), was held recently in Delhi. The event themed on 'Gearing up for Carbon Neutrality and Sustainability,' emphasised the significance of innovation and sustainability in the auto component industry. The event was graced by industry leaders, senior government officials, and experts from around the world. 

In his inaugural address, Sunjay J Kapur, ACMA President and Chairman, Sona Comstar, expressed gratitude towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi for encouraging sustainable development in the country through the 'Panch-amrit' strategy - announced at the COP 26 summit in Glasgow. The strategy aims to establish non-fossil energy capacity, satisfy energy needs with renewable energy, minimise carbon emissions, and attain net-zero emissions by 2070. “As the Indian automotive industry moves forward in 2023 and beyond, it is essential to embrace green and clean technology to remain ecologically relevant. 

He highlighted the need for the auto component industry to be ahead of the curve in adopting new environmentally sound technologies, sustainable manufacturing practices, and business models that minimize carbon footprint while embracing the ethos of a circular economy. 

Distinguished guests from both the Government of India (GoI) and the industry were present at the event, which included notable figures such as Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Textiles, Commerce and Industry and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in the Government of India; Vinod Aggarwal, President of SIAM, and Chairman of the Jury of ACMA Atmanirbhar Excellence Awards, as well as the Managing Director and CEO of VE Commercial Vehicles, and R. Dinesh, the President-Designate of CII, Executive Vice Chairman of TVS Supply Chain Solutions, and Director of TVS Automobile Solutions. 

Extending his warm congratulations to all the winners of the ACMA Atmanirbhar Excellence Awards, Goyal stated that India's future in technology and innovation hinges on investment in R&D and commitment to indigenisation. He highlighted the pivotal role that the auto components industry can play in leading the charge for self-reliance, through increased investment in new technology and design, and by integrating the informal sector to indigenize the value chain.  Underscoring the importance of building a strong defence industry and promoting indigenous manufacturing, as this will enable India to be self-reliant and become a reliable and trusted supplier to the world, Goyal stressed the significance of India emerging as a supplier to the world and commended ACMA's active role in supporting start-ups and smaller businesses to indigenise the entire value chain and integrate them into the mainstream.  

The eminent jury for the Awards included Vinod Aggarwal, President, SIAM and MD & CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles Limited (VECV), Sunil Kakkar, Sr. Executive Officer - Supply chain, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Rajesh Uppal, Member Executive Board (HR, IT and Safety), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Anandakrishnan, Sr. VP (Purchase), TVS Motors Ltd., Vipin Kaul, Purchasing Leader Cummins India ABO, Cummins India Ltd., Angela Mans, Head of Foreign Trade and International Relations, German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA), V. Sridhar, Senior Director, Purchase, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd., Ganesh Mani S., President and COO, Ashok Leyland, Sundar, Asst Vice President, Unit Head, HMIL Procurement, Hyundai, Raju Ketkale, Executive Vice President, Toyota Kirloskar Motors Pvt Ltd., B. Srinivas, Executive Vice President-Product Strategy and Purchasing, VE Commercial Vehicles.  

The event concluded with the announcement of 68 auto component manufacturers who were awarded the prestigious ACMA Atmanirbhar Excellence Awards across categories of Excellence in Manufacturing, Sustainable Business, Digitisation, Localisation, and Exports.
 

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Coretura, a 50:50 joint venture between Daimler Truck and Volvo Group, has entered into an engineering agreement with Accenture to accelerate the development of a software platform for commercial vehicles.

The company, headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, currently employs over 100 engineers. It continues to recruit specialists in system architecture, high-performance computing and cloud infrastructure to support its roadmap, which targets the delivery of its first commercialised products towards the end of the decade.

Coretura intends to create a single software platform, language and standard for trucks, buses and other heavy-duty transport vehicles. The platform is designed to support vehicle lifecycles of more than 15 years, moving the industry away from projects that require custom software development for each new vehicle.

As the engineering partner, Accenture will support development across several areas, including:

• Electrical and Electronic (E/E) architecture
• Software abstraction and hardware integration
• Embedded software, middleware, and cybersecurity
• Functional safety and cloud infrastructure

The platform aims to provide a reusable software stack to lower costs and standardise time-to-market for global manufacturers. For fleet operators, the system is designed to allow for continuous software updates and performance upgrades delivered over the air.

Johan Lunden, CEO, Coretura, said, “Our purpose is to advance mobility at the speed of ideas, and that takes depth. Building a full-stack SDV platform demands expertise across embedded software, middleware, cybersecurity, and functional safety, all designed for vehicles with lifecycles measured in decades. Accenture’s reinvention capabilities let us move faster without compromising the standards our customers depend on. This is acceleration, not course correction.”

Rainer Oder, SDV Embedded Software Lead, Accenture, added, “Helping the industry advance software-defined vehicles is a priority for Accenture. Our landmark collaboration with Coretura is designed to change embedded software engineering for automotive platforms. Together, we are looking to solve the challenges of a fully software-defined architecture – addressing critical areas such as hardware abstraction, API management and AI-based engineering optimisations.”

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The ePlane Company has announced the completion of its full-scale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the e200X. Designated PT-01, the prototype has successfully integrated all core subsystems into a single structure, marking the transition from design and simulation to physical testing.

The e200X is designed as a single airframe versatile enough to serve three distinct markets – Passenger Air Taxi, Urban Cargo Carrier and Air Ambulance.

The company emphasises that the aircraft was designed to be compact, allowing it to integrate into existing urban infrastructure without requiring significant city redesigns.

Developed at the company's own facilities in Chennai, the e200X features in-house development of major components, including propellers, airframe structure, landing gear and battery pack.

This vertical integration provides the company with control over performance, manufacturing costs, and iteration speed, having reached this milestone on approximately USD 21 million in funding.

With assembly complete, the e200X will now undergo ground testing, flight testing and certification.

Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Founder, The ePlane Company, said, "We set out to build an electric aircraft to a world-class benchmark, engineered and manufactured in depth in India for the World.  We deliberately designed the e200X to be compact, because an aircraft that asks a city to rebuild itself around it will not solve the problem it was built to solve. The same airframe can move people as an air taxi, carry goods as a cargo aircraft, and save lives as an air ambulance, and it can do all three using the infrastructure cities already have. That combination of real capability and capital efficiency is how we intend to compete, and win, in markets around the world.”

The company’s board includes prominent figures such as Vishesh Rajaram (Speciale Invest), Eash Sundaram (JetBlue) and Aditya Ghosh (Homage, Akasa Air). The venture, incubated at IIT Madras, has also received international recognition, including being showcased at Bharat Innovates 2026 and featured in Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote.

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Chinese technology company Xiaomi has marked a new milestone for its automotive product offering with its electric vehicle.

The company has announced a significant milestone in autonomous vehicle technology by completing the first official autonomous lap of the Nurburgring Nordschleife circuit in Germany with the Xiaomi YU7 GT, equipped with a Track Package, navigating the 20.8 km circuit without a human driver, recording a lap time of 10:29.483.

Following this performance, the Nurburgring has introduced a new official vehicle category: Autonomous Driving (under Electric Vehicles).

The Xiaomi YU7 GT autonomously navigated all 73 corners of the Nordschleife, managing 300 metres of elevation change and varying road surface conditions. The performance was driven by Xiaomi’s autonomous driving system, which integrates the Xiaomi XLA architecture and the MiMo-Embodied foundation model introduced in March 2026. The end-to-end architecture enabled the vehicle to coordinate steering, braking and power delivery in real-time, maintaining stability under high-speed and high-load conditions.

Xiaomi’s autonomous driving programme has evolved since the 2024 launch of Xiaomi HAD. The current system moves beyond simple behaviour imitation toward autonomous decision-making and deeper environmental interpretation. The company stated that the Nurburgring project serves as a critical testing ground to collect data for refining vehicle dynamics modelling, control strategy optimisation and safety redundancy mechanisms.

This achievement underscores Xiaomi’s commitment to advancing artificial intelligence in the automotive sector through rigorous real-world validation.

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QuantumScape Corporation has announced a multi-year joint research agreement with Honda R&D Co., a subsidiary of Honda Motor Co.

The collaboration focuses on advancing QuantumScape’s solid-state lithium-metal battery platform, including the development of associated manufacturing processes.

This agreement follows a successful technology evaluation period during which Honda conducted a technical study and competitive benchmarking of QuantumScape’s battery platform.

Atsushi Ogawa, Chief Operating Officer, Research Center of Excellence, Honda R&D Co, said, “QS technology demonstrated compelling and unique advantages during our evaluation. We see potential for QS technology to add value across a range of applications, including automotive, and we are excited to move forward into the next phase of our partnership.”

Dr. Siva Sivaram, CEO and President, QuantumScape, added, “Honda is a leading global automaker renowned for its engineering excellence and product quality across automotive and other applications worldwide, and its evaluation represents one of the most rigorous assessments of our technology to date. This agreement reflects the growing confidence in QS solid-state lithium-metal batteries to enable safer, higher-density energy storage.”

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