Rajesh finds himself at a crossroads in Coimbatore, a city that produced one of India’s first home-built diesel engines, while manufacturers race to develop more electric vehicles (EVs).
Rajesh, the owner of a small auto component manufacturing business in Tamil Nadu’s southern region, is a part of the supply chain that experts in the field predict would be disrupted if India quickens its switch to electric vehicles in order to assist it in achieving its climate objectives.
“For little players like me, the rise of EVs means the business will go down,” declared Rajesh, owner of the two-wheeler component manufacturer Autotech Engineers.
“We are conscious that the nature of the business may change, but for the time being, I am sticking to what I know and have been doing for the past 20 years, which is reproducing design drawings supplied by corporations into flawless parts. But the future is unknown,” he continued.
The small and medium-sized car component sector in India, which employs an estimated 5 million people, shares his worries. Millions more people work in unofficial maintenance and repairs.
In an unprecedented move, the state government of Tamil Nadu started mapping this supply chain last month in an effort to better understand the effects the switch to cleaner automobiles and scooters will have on businesses and their employees.
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