India’s electric vehicle (EV) revolution has triggered a hiring boom with top vehicle makers investing in R&D, material and data science and mechatronics, battery designing and robotics programming. According to HR firm TeamLease, currently India has around 400 EV manufacturers and a 11 million strong workforce, with women accounting for 11%-15% of the pie. “This proportion is expected to increase to 30% in the next five to 10 years as EVs create 50 million direct and indirect jobs by 2030,” said Munira Loliwala, AVP-strategy & growth, TeamLease Digital.
Currently 55% of the EV workforce is engaged in chassis-related roles, 35% work with gears, motors, and engines, and 5% are involved in electric and electronic components. “This translates to 70% to 80% of the existing automotive-experienced workforce transitioning into EV manufacturing, with only 15% to 25% requiring new skills in electrical and electronics engineering,” said Loliwala. Fresh talent constitutes 20% to 25% of the total team in the design domain, with 30% of them being women hired from colleges and institutions, she added.
The nearly five-fold jump in workforce strength means all big EV players are focussing on talent acquisition. Take Switch Mobility, the EV arm of Ashok Leyland, which, said CEO Mahesh Babu, “boasts a team of 550 members of which 220 are in the R&D department. We’re doubling down on talent acquisition this year, focusing on crucial areas like engineering, manufacturing, sales, and marketing.”
Crucially, Switch is not just hiring, it’s building a talent pipeline, bringing in freshers and Graduate Trainee Engineers (GTE) who will be groomed as “future-ready leaders”. Others like two and three wheeler major TVS Motor, for instance, has 2,000 engineers working on advanced technologies such as material science, electric powertrain, and data science while the EV battery assembly is led by a team that has 65% women.
Crucially all big EV companies are working with academia to get workforce that can hit the ground running. Yeshwinder Patial, senior director, HR, MG Motor India said, “MG Motor India currently employs around 20% of its workforce in green jobs, which is expected to grow in multiple folds by 2030. We saw a 10% increase in green hiring since last year.”
