Unlike India, Japan used to have a very considerable history of research and development (R&D) until their industries were crippled at the end of the Second World War. Their early efforts at industrialisation and weapon development had led to their unanticipated victory over the Russian navy way back in 1905. By 1939 they were also making locally designed submarines and aeroplanes.
They were making cars and two-wheelers but they were less noticed. By contrast the Indian industry before the war had been mainly confined to textiles, cement, sugar and steel and even fans and sewing machines had been imported. After the war, Japan focused on the auto industry for export-led growth. The global auto industry used to be dominated by the US, England and Europe with many big gas guzzling cars. Japan’s small and fuel-efficient cars were, therefore, able to quickly find opportunities for penetration.
The Indian auto industry began after the war with the slow localisation of jeeps, cars and trucks assembled by Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobiles, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) and Tata Motors. Except for tires and batteries, there was also a weak infrastructure of components so almost all vehicles and components were dependant on foreign technologies.
In 1983, the Maruti 800 revolutionized the industry but was also totally dependent on Japanese technology.
It was only after the economic reforms of 1991 that a number of modern cars from Daewoo, Fiat, Ford, GM, Mercedes and Peugeot Tata entered the market followed by cars from Hyundai, Honda, Toyota and others after 1995. They all had to set up a large number of component vendors but most of the technologies were foreign.
A competitive Indian auto industry was, however, keen to localize in order to lower costs. As many of the cars were of foreign origin, the basic research on their designs, engines, suspensions and other systems remained foreign but considerable local research is now going to the components. Wholly Indian firms such as Tata and M&M are, however, devoting much of their effort on complete localisation and they can outsource many technologies.
Auto styling is also very important and M&M have gone further by even buying Pininferina a great Italian design house.
There are many areas of auto research from the basic research into new technologies to the details of the styling of the car to substituting a forging with a pressed part. Even the grille, lights and other details need considerable research in function and styling.
The global attention to fuel efficiency and pollution has resulted in new technologies like common rail fuel injection systems. There is also research for better materials to ensure stronger and lighter components with longer service life with the result that the power trains of most new cars seldom need overhauling.
During the past decade much of the research has not been mechanical but electronic with the result that almost all the systems are controlled by an army of microchips, sensors and micromotors that command the engine combustion, suspensions, steering, braking and even the lighting and climate control. Mechanical steering has been superseded by hydraulic power steering and now there is electric steering that responds to all car and road dynamics.
Sensors can feel the traction and slippage on every wheel to feed power delivery to each wheel individually. Research has also resulted in better tires and lubricants offering better performance and longer life.
Research today has no national boundaries and researchers interact with each other all over the globe 24/7. As India has various highly capable engineers who cost less to hire, the country is steadily becoming an important centre for global automotive research.