The Bharat factor- India's rise in global automotive supply chain

With booming exports, advanced localisation and bold sustainability shifts, India is fast becoming a pivotal hub in the global auto supply chain.

- Rajarshi Chatterjee

For decades, the architecture of the global automotive industry was taken for granted: German engineering, Japanese production discipline, American scale and, in the last two decades, China's unrivalled factory capacity.

Over the past ten years, however, that map has quietly shifted. India — long spoken of for its demand-side potential — is now stepping forward as a fundamental supply-chain node. It is doing so not through one-off advantages but through a sustained assemblage of engineering talent, supplier capability, logistics connectivity, and policy frameworks that together tilt the economics and resilience equations for manufacturers and suppliers worldwide.

The story here is not only about one company or one plant; it is about an ecosystem that now supports giant global OEMs and tier-one suppliers, tyre makers and luxury assemblers, and which is already steering global decisions about where and how next-generation vehicles are designed, made and exported.

India as a strategic, not just a cost, location

When Daimler Truck announced during its Capital Market Day 2025 that India had been designated as the “best cost country” within the Mercedes-Benz Trucks ONE global team, it was notable not because the company found a new low-cost site but because it publicly acknowledged India’s strategic depth. That depth combines cost advantage with a high level of engineering skill and a supplier base capable of meeting world-class specifications. Michael Moebius, President and Chief Procurement & Supply Chain Officer at Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), captures this mix succinctly: “One of our biggest advantages here in India is low cost but high education level. And we have a very young and agile workforce in all areas — in our production, in our R&D. And this is exactly what we are utilising worldwide.”