Light Weight Technology in Automobile is the need of the hour!

India is taking some great initiatives towards cleaner mobility and Electric, Hybrid and Fuel-efficient/ environmental friendly IC engines are on focus. A country with sizeable manufacturing in the automotive sector, Light Weighting Technologies are the need of the hour to achieve the right results in the way forward. GDC Tech Forum in its annual technical conference and exhibition is addressing this emerging technology which needs more attention in terms of research, development and investment with LWT 2019 – 3 days exhibition as well as technical conference scheduled from 28-30 November 2019, at Chennai Trade Centre.

Shrikant Marathe, former Director of Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) is the Chairman of Light Weight Technology (LWT) Forum and with an exclusive interaction with our Managing Editor Hari Shanker shares his thoughts on commercialization of LWT in the Indian automotive industry, and the relevance of this year’s technical conference and exhibition organized with MMTS 2019. Mr. Marathe carries an experience of 25 years working in the automotive industry and has remained the Director of ARAI for more than 9 years.

According to Mr. Marathe, light-weighting technology is the need of the day for Indian automotive manufacturing. He shares, "LWT is essential as EVs with high weight will eventually perform poorly. It is beneficial for every kind of vehicles whether it is EV or IC engine vehicle as light-weighting will also increase efficiency in petrol and diesel vehicles”. 

“Any conference remains a theoretical subject unless widely accepted and commercialized”, adds Mr. Marathe, a major challenge we are facing when it comes to developing viable commercial projects under Light Weight Technology. There is a huge opportunity for our country to benefit from this technology if our public transport vehicles (Bus body) in the private and government sector can be converted into Aluminum.

For a bus that runs more than 200 km, LWT can bring a lot of benefits to the total operating cost. Aluminum can prove reliable here but at the same time, it is expensive. The initial cost is high but when we consider the running cost and scrap cost aluminum definitely wins.

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  MM Desk