ATS to Invest INR 220 Crore at Telangana Mobility Valley to Set up Testing and Homologation Facilities
Delhi-based Automotive Test Systems (ATS) is one of the first businesses to acknowledge spending close to INR 220 crore in the recently launched Telangana Mobility Valley (TMV). In order to establish an Automotive Technology Centre and Proving Ground at Meenapallekalan in Telangana, the company signed an MOU with the Telangana government and its technical partner TUV Rheinland of Cologne.
ATS will be building the centre from the ground up and will invest its corpus to purchase 125 acres which Telangana Government has offered to the company at attractive rates. ATS provides developmental trials- Durability tests, performance, and pre-homologation tests for Tier 1 component makers. including leading passenger car OEMs such as Mahindra & Mahindra and E-Bus Maker Olectra.
TMV aims to facilitate companies across all segments of sustainable mobility including electric two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers for advanced cell chemistry development, hydrogen fuel cells, Tier 1 and Tier 2 component manufacturers and auto engineering and research and development (R&D) companies. These companies, and others like them, will rely on the ATS facilities for certification and testing and homologation of electric vehicles of all classes and certifying EV component makers who plan to set up their manufacturing facilities there.
“ATS, which currently has a turnover of 150 crore and houses a staff of more than 180 people spread across its four-four test facilities in Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune, was in discussion with the Government of Telangana for the last six months. Telangana ministry officials visited its multiple test centres across India and Cologne and the facilities at TÜV Rheinland, based on which the final decision was taken and culminated in the signing of the MOU.” said Ramanathan Srinivasan, Managing Director of ATS. Srinivasan added that ATS is in the process of setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which will also be supported by strategic investors who are already identified. The company is expected to close the arrangements to operationalise the facility in the next six months, he said.
The MOU was signed in the presence of Telangana Industry Minister KT Rama Rao along with Dr. Mathias Schubert, Executive Vice President of Mobility, TUV Rheinland, Germany and Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary to the Government and Commissioner of Industrial Promotion.
Telangana's move to set up an independent testing facility also dovetails with the Union government waiving off the 252 percent custom duty on imported cars for testing in India. The custom duty waiver has made India the sixth country to successfully provide testing and certification to foreign cars brought into the country and the opening of new facilities will bolster the confidence of global car makers to shift their vehicle testing requirements to India and make the country competitive against the UK, Germany, China, Taiwan, Japan which have an upper hand in the vehicle testing space.
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