Strategic Ecosystem Assessment: India’s Emerging Role in the Global SDV Space

Objective

A global Tier 1 automotive technology leader engaged us to assess the evolving dynamics among OEMs, Tier 1 suppliers, and technology service providers in the context of Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) in India. The focus was to:

Understand how IT and engineering services firms are expanding their presence across the SDV value chain, often stepping into roles traditionally held by Tier 1s, and to assess the long-term strategic implications of this transition for global partnerships, supply networks, and the future of vehicle software innovation. This was done within the broader context of the growing automotive software market and increasing global OEM partnerships in India.

What We Did

We conducted a comprehensive SDV market research India deep-dive to:

• Map recent vehicle tech partnerships, especially involving India-based SDV innovators and global automotive players.
• Analyze the structure and nature of collaborations across critical SDV functions, ADAS development services, HMI development partners, and IVI software partners.
• Evaluate automotive ECU engineering and infrastructure capabilities, including software testing frameworks, vehicle simulation services, and engine testing setups.
• Benchmark SDV initiatives of select automotive software engineering firms.
• Generate actionable insights to inform a future-proof SDV collaboration strategy and bolster the client's automotive digitization strategy.

How We Did It

We applied a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods:

Secondary Research:

• Reviewed public domain materials: company filings, product literature, policy briefs, and industry thought pieces.
• Analyzed technical whitepapers and studies on next-gen automotive platforms, SDV architectures, and partnership trends.

Primary Research:

• Conducted 30+ expert interviews with leaders across engineering R&D in mobility, OEMs, and Tier 1 suppliers.
• Ran a structured survey with over 100 mid-to-senior professionals, equally split between automotive and tech domains, with deep automotive domain expertise in India.

Outcome

The study delivered a clear, data-backed view of the SDV ecosystem India, enabling the client to make informed strategic moves.

Collaboration Ecosystem:

• Unpacked the shifting dynamics between digital mobility engineering service providers and OEMs.
• Identified high-impact collaboration areas: ADAS stack development, co-development in auto tech for ECU integration, and smart cockpit development.

Infrastructure Mapping:

• Assessed readiness of key players in areas such as SiL/HiL environments, digital twins in automotive, and engine testing capabilities.
• Highlighted upcoming India auto design centers and advanced auto tech labs in India, including expansion across the India Southeast Asia mobility corridor.

Competitive Insights:

• Benchmarked leading Indian tech firms on SDV-readiness, embedded systems in SDVs, functional safety, and vehicle software nearshoring.
• Surfaced trends like agile engineering in automotive, mobility software outsourcing, and modular software innovation in transport.
• Evaluated cost-effective SDV testing solutions and technology provider benchmarking metrics for global SDV partner evaluation.

Strategic Outcomes:

• Recommended deeper involvement in co-developing automotive systems, including next-gen cockpit platforms and autonomous stacks.
• Proposed investments in scalable SDV solutions and auto SaaS development in India, leveraging India’s strengths in automotive tech consulting and digital mobility transformation.
• Highlighted disruption opportunities in the auto software value chain driven by software innovation in mobility.

Client Actions

The client moved swiftly on the recommendations:

• Secured new automotive tech partnerships in India, especially in HMI and IVI segments.
• Jointly funded an ADAS test lab in South Asia to fast-track validation and functional safety consulting in India.
• These initiatives materially accelerated their SDV roadmap and reinforced their position in the connected vehicle ecosystem.

Leverage India’s automotive software ecosystem to accelerate your SDV strategy with the right partners and scalable solutions; contact us to get started.