Women Taking Driver’s Seat In EV Industry
New Delhi: Women professionals are emerging as the preferred choice in India’s burgeoning electric vehicle (EV) industry with legacy companies as well as startups seeking better gender balance at workplaces.
For every 10 new hires in the EV sector, six tend to be women skilled in business modelling, design redevelopment, e-mobility and renewable energy management, several recruiting agencies told ET.
As women employees have a knack for design and safety, the green sector is offering 35% higher compensation to interested candidtaes than those offered to women in other sectors, they said.
Hiring of women professionals in the segment went up by 18% last quarter, according to staffing firm Adecco.
Homegrown Tata Motors, which dominates the electric vehicle market with a share of over 80%, and British marque MG are among those driving this trend.
And many of these women are in leadership positions.
All-women Assembly Line
“As women leaders are agile, and value safety and quality while leading with empathy, the Indian EV sector has seen massive success with women in the boardroom,” said Yeshab Giri, chief commercial officer (staffing and Randstad technologies) at Randstad India.
Tata Motors has more than 3,000 women operating on the shopfloor across all its plants, working on multiple products ranging from passenger (electric and ICE) cars to heavy commercial vehicles. It recently commissioned an all-women assembly line at its manufacturing facility in Pune, with more than 1,500 dedicated women professionals.
The company “strongly believes that a more diverse staff, with more women at the top, will enrich inclusive culture and enable the company to achieve even greater success”, said Ravindra Kumar, president and chief human resources officer at Tata Motors.
The company is set to close the ongoing financial year with sales of close to 50,000 electric vehicles. Overall, the company has plans to launch 10 electric vehicles over the next five years.
MG Motor India – which has scheduled for launch an affordable electric vehicle shortly – targets having 50% women employees in its workforce by 2023.
Women already account for 37% of its workforce, managing multiple roles and responsibilities across engineering, manufacturing, field, HR, IT, finance, and other functions.
“We aim to take this number to 50% by end of 2023 and empower women equally from shop floor to leadership positions”, said Rajeev Chaba, president at MG Motor India. “From being a ‘good to have’ aspect for the business, diversity has now become a competitive advantage for organisations. We believe that a heterogeneous workforce brings in a tangible impact on the bottom line through enhanced innovations, diverse ideas, and creates a more sustainable organisation,” he added.
MG Motor’s new EV targeting customers at the heart of the market will be priced between Rs 10-15 lakh. Its existing electric car ZS EV is locally manufactured in Halol, Gujarat. The company is looking at clocking as much as a fourth of its sales from EVs in 2023.
Munira Loliwala, business head at staffing firm TeamLease Digital said the EV segment being less mechanical and more electrical/electronics-oriented is enabling the inclusion of more women across functions.
“Startups and new entrants have increased digitisation and brought in futuristic technologies, embedded engineering systems and new-age design/development, revolutionising traditional field engineering technology and creating space for gender diversity,” Loliwala said.
Manu Saigal, director (general staffing) at Adecco India, said female workforce requirement in the EV industry is higher compared to the traditional automobile segment, with high representation in leadership roles and other levels of hierarchy.
“Particularly the EV startup ecosystem and OEMs have the women workforce playing a vital role in battery component manufacturing, vehicle design, charging infrastructure, manufacturing units, sales and distribution, and disruptive technology,” Saigal said.
