Bengaluru-headquartered electric two-wheeler maker Ather Energy has expanded its R&D and testing capabilities at its Product Testing & Validation Centre – The Juggernaut – in Begur, Bengaluru.

The facility spread across 38,692 sqft, will allow the EV maker to validate durability and safety across vehicle, system and component levels, including on-road endurance. It features dedicated labs for structural durability, battery testing, electrical & electronics reliability and vehicle environment testing.

At present, Ather has three R&D facilities in Bengaluru, Karnataka. As of December 2024, Ather Energy said it invested INR 2,388 million or 15 percent of its revenue from operations for R&D. Moreover, 46 percent of its workforce is dedicated towards R&D, which involves design, development and testing of electric two-wheeler products, software for scooters, charging infrastructure and accessories. It currently sells the Ather 450 lineup and the Rizta catering to various customer needs.

The new expansion houses a 4 DOF Road Simulator/MTS 334 road load simulator, for targeted testing of systems like suspension frames, enabling early bug detection, faster design optimisation and lower change costs. The MTS 334 road load simulator can replicate real-world two-wheeler riding conditions, compressing a 100,000 km endurance test into just 15 days, which otherwise the company claims would take about 10 years to cover on road.

Using multi-stress factor testing and a feedback loop from field data to test cases, Ather Energy aims to continuously refine its validation processes to improve real-world performance. The data-driven tests not only improves accuracy, but also enables engineers to predict and address potential failure points before they reach customers. In addition, it also conducts battery validation tests including thermal performance test, water wading test, drop test and vibration and thermal cycling to tune the battery for performance and safety.

Swapnil Jain, Co-founder & CTO, Ather Energy, said, “EVs are radically different from ICE vehicles and are a relatively new technology, so it is important to thoroughly test all the components of the vehicle. At Ather, we have made significant investments in R&D over the years and have developed processes & standards for testing to deliver quality products. Our products go through rigorous tests that are designed around Indian riding conditions and extreme usage scenarios, reflecting how customers use our scooters. With the expansion of The Juggernaut, we are scaling up our testing capacity & capabilities, enabling us to accelerate innovation and product development, while maintaining our focus on performance, quality and reliability.”

The company currently has two manufacturing plants in Hosur, Tamil Nadu, one each for vehicle assembly and battery manufacturing and an upcoming third manufacturing facility in Bidkin, AURIC, Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar, Maharashtra.

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Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturer, has announced the winners of the 9th Cohort of its flagship Accelerator program.

The winners include six Indian startups: Frinks AI, mistEO, Adagrad, Com Olho, ProSolvr and Eligere and three German startups: Caire AI, Syn2Core and Talonic, under the newly introduced Global Startups category. This marked the first global cohort where a total of 19 startups from India and 7 from Germany participated to showcase their ideas/solutions across domains such as AI, cybersecurity, road safety, quality control, EV charging infra and battery swapping among others.

Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India, said, “Startups bring fresh thinking and new ideas. Through the Maruti Suzuki Accelerator program, we have been working with them to co-create future-ready solutions that enhance customer experience and drive operational efficiency in the automobile manufacturing and mobility space. The participation of global startups, this cohort onwards, marks a new milestone in this journey. It further supports our efforts to contribute meaningfully to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Startup India’ initiatives of the Government. We welcome the winning startups to join us in our mission to offer ‘Joy of Mobility’ to as many people as possible.”

Launched in January 2019, Maruti Suzuki India in the last six years, has screened over 5,000 startups, engaged with 150 startups and onboarded 25 startups partners.

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Shanghai-headquartered Inceptio Technology, a developer of autonomous truck technologies, has joined the Autoware Foundation, a global open alliance for autonomous driving tech.

As part of the understanding, Inceptio will collaborate with members of Autoware Foundation to advance innovation and accelerate the deployment of safe, scalable autonomous truck technologies.

Inceptio's technology portfolio covers L4, L3 and L2+ autonomous driving capabilities. It will leverage its proprietary full-stack Inceptio Autonomous Driving System - which features long-range perception, high-precision tractor and tailer control, fuel-efficient driving algorithm, as well as HPC specifically designed for truck's operating condition. This it shared improves safety, fuel efficiency and operational cost. Using data-driven R&D platform continuously refines core modules in real time, enabling rapid deployment and optimisation of autonomous truck technologies across diverse use cases in trucking.

Launched in 2018, the Autoware Foundation is a non-profit organisation dedicated to supporting open-source collaboration that accelerates the development of autonomous driving technology globally. It counts the likes of Tomtom, Robosense, NXP, Huawei, Hitachi, Capegemini, Foxconn, AMD and Amazon Web Services amongst its members.

Inceptio, on its part, was amongst the first to have launched the industry's first series production autonomous trucks in late 2021. Till date, Inceptio Autonomous Driving System is claimed to have has achieved over 200 million kilometres of commercial operations.

Shinpei Kato, Founder and Fellow, Autoware Foundation said, "We are excited to welcome Inceptio Technology to the Autoware Foundation. Inceptio's proven track record in autonomous trucking and deep industry and production expertise will be invaluable as we work together to build the next generation of autonomous mobility solutions for the trucking industry."

Inceptio will actively participate in the Autoware Foundation initiatives by contributing technology and use cases, exploring new applications, and forging global partnerships.

Julian Ma, Founder & CEO, Inception Technology, added, "We look forward to collaborating with a global open-source community of innovators to accelerate the development of autonomous driving technologies and extend the community's reach deep into truck segment. Our extensive experience in series production and insight from world's largest commercial deployment of autonomous truck uniquely position us to contribute to the Autoware Foundation, driving safer and more efficient logistics worldwide."

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Tata Elxsi, a global leader in design and technology services has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Infineon Technologies, a leading semiconductor solutions company, to jointly develop application-ready electric vehicle solutions tailored to the Indian market.

The partners will collaborate on design and integration expertise to drive faster adoption of automotive-grade, cost-efficient and safety-compliant subsystems across key mobility segments. This collaboration, the partners stated, aligns with India’s rapid shift towards electrification, with EV sales growing by 25–30 percent year-on-year in 2024, including a 28 percent increase in electric two- and three-wheeler sales.

As part of the understanding, Tata Elxsi will bring its design, system integration and validation capabilities, while Infineon will provide early access to its latest semiconductor technologies – such as silicon carbide (SiC)-based components, microcontrollers and integrated circuits (ICs).

The partners will work closely to develop high-voltage inverters for traction and auxiliary systems, scalable battery management systems (BMS), bi-directional onboard chargers and high-voltage thermal management solutions for the Indian market targeting two-wheeler, three-wheeler, passenger vehicles and commercial vehicle segments. In future, they also look to support eVTOL, energy and off-highway sectors.

Nambi Ganesh, Head – Automotive, Tata Elxsi, said, “Currently, several of our EV solutions are already built on Infineon SoCs and components. This MoU further strengthens our partnership by giving us a clearer scope and tighter system-level alignment, enabling shorter turnaround times to address Indian market requirements. As EV adoption scales, our focus remains on delivering production-ready, automotive standards-compliant platforms and solutions.”

Kenneth Lim, Senior Vice-President – Automotive, Infineon Technologies Asia Pacific, said, “At Infineon, we are committed to driving innovation in the electric vehicle sector and empowering our partners to bring cutting-edge technologies to market. This partnership with Tata Elxsi is a significant step in our journey to support India’s ambitious electrification goals. By combining Tata Elxsi's design and integration expertise with our advanced semiconductor solutions, we are not only enhancing the development of ready-to-deploy EV systems but also ensuring that they meet the highest safety and performance standards. Together, we aim to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility across various segments, from two-wheelers to commercial vehicles, and contribute to a more sustainable future for India.”

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Hindustan Zinc Limited, India's sole and the world's biggest integrated zinc producer, said today that its Board of Directors has authorised the first phase of investments to double production capacity.

This development is in line with the robust rise in the demand for steel both domestically and internationally. Over the next five years, the company intends to increase its capacity for producing metal and silver, increasing its overall production capacity to over 2,000 KTPA and 1500 tonnes, respectively. In addition to expanding related mines and mills throughout its operations, the Board has authorised the proposal to establish a new 250 KTPA integrated smelter at Debari in the Udaipur area of Rajasthan. The company’s current metal production capacity is 1.1 million tonnes. At a total cost of over INR 120 billion, the project is expected to be finished in 36 months.

This is an important development since it coincides with the ongoing global zinc market shortage. Silver output has increased more than 20 times, while zinc production has increased four times since the government sold up its share in 2002 and the Vedanta Group bought it. Holding the second-highest zinc reserves and resources in the world with more than 25 years of mine life, the firm is one of the lowest cost zinc producers in the world.

Arun Misra, CEO, Hindustan Zinc Limited, said, “We are excited to announce this 2x growth project towards doubling our capacity across zinc, lead and silver, which is strategically aligned with the country’s expanding economic landscape, increasing demand opportunities and keeping country self-reliant for Zinc. By closely matching the pace of national growth, we are confident that this will create significant value for our stakeholders and drive long-term success.”

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