many component makers realise that paying a premium makes the landed cost higher for certain components like integrated casting mumbai india the worlds third largest automobile market will rely more on china for components as the government steps on the gas to go for electric vehicles in the financial year 2018 alone chinese exports to india touched 43 billion up 27 over fy13 with the automobile industry executives saying that theres no sign of slowing down in the futureindia imports ten times more auto components from china than it exports the ever growing imports of auto components from china pose a threat to the local auto component manufacturing ecosystem and will increase indias already huge trade deficit with china in the next few years chinese exports to india are driven mainly by the electronic components in vehicles which will be used in the impending launch of a slew of new electric vehicles evs advt also the practically nonexistent hardware manufacturing base in india is forcing oems and tier1 suppliers to import more from chinadrive transmission steering followed by electricals interiors and engine components from china form a major chunk of the importsgiven that indias road map for electrification and chinas leadership in evs 60 of global volumes and battery technology we expect imports from china on ev components and subcomponents to go up this despite localisation targets and import duties chinese components for evs will still be more competitive than making them in india even today share of certain components like imports of dc motors from china is very high said aswin kumar programme manager mobility automotive and transportation frost sullivanthe imports from china are mainly for ev components as we do not have a well established ev partsmaking ecosystem in india nonev parts are imported mostly for tactical reasons like gaps in local capacities and cost benefits said hemant sikka chief procurement officer at mahindra mahindramany component makers realise that paying a premium makes the landed cost higher for certain components like integrated casting etc we are not able to get the required quality in india and the rejection levels are high in china the rejection levels are as low as 3 and india still has about 20 said a major auto component importer who did not wished to be named advt in many other cases components are cheaper by 10 making it more viable to import electrical components steering gears etc added the component importer based out of chennaiexperts said india doesnt have mandated standards for products sold in the aftermarket making it attractive for substandard lowpriced chinese components to find their way into the indian marketwith quality standards on the cards for aftermarket products and the government mandating local content for evs in the recently announced fameii policy for emobility imports from china are expected to drop in the coming yearsthe governments intention is good but it seems impractical to localise in such a short time said ashok taneja md ceo of shriram pistons