It’s nearly 5 pm outside the factory gates of India’s EV market leader in Chakan near Pune. As one shift streams out and another moves through security to clock in, employee buses, trucks and thousands of motorcycles converge on the roads what HR managers jokingly call the “evening parking lot”, a daily gridlock triggered by the shift change in one of the country’s most important automotive manufacturing clusters.

Amid the chaos, electric scooters carrying urgently needed components weave through traffic, duck into bylanes and occasionally take the wrong side of the road to bypass bottlenecks. Their cargo may fit inside a backpack, a wiring harness, sensor or electronics module, but is valuable enough to keep an assembly line moving.

The scramble offers a glimpse into a growing challenge confronting India’s automakers. Mahindra & Mahindra’s recent disclosure that labour shortages at suppliers forced production cuts of up to 15 per cent merely exposed what many in the industry already knew: a missing worker at a component plant can be as disruptive as a missing machine on an assembly line. Across Pune’s automotive belt, production managers have a new mantra: own your supply chain workforce.

Why Tata Motors, Mahindra and Bajaj Auto Are Feeling the Pressure

The issue extends well beyond Mahindra. Bajaj Auto’s expanding electric two-wheeler operations depend on suppliers producing wiring harnesses, aluminium die-castings and electronics in the same talent-constrained Chakan ecosystem.

Sourcces say Tata Motors, meanwhile, is asking suppliers to support both traditional ICE programmes and increasingly sophisticated EV architectures. Whether an automaker is building electric scooters, passenger vehicles, buses or commercial vehicles, executives say the EV transition cannot move any faster than the capability of the smallest supplier in the ecosystem.

The EV Transition Won’t Wait

“The EV transition is not waiting for the workforce to catch up. The workforce has to catch up with the EV transition,” said Vinkesh Gulati, Chairman of the Automotive Skills Development Council (ASDC).

According to Gulati, the industry’s challenge is no longer creating jobs but creating job-ready talent fast enough to match the speed of electrification, automation and software-defined manufacturing. “The industry is not short of people. It is short of people with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time,” he said.

Over the past five years, automakers and suppliers have invested billions in EVs, battery systems and advanced manufacturing. Yet much of the supplier workforce remains trained for an era dominated by internal combustion engines.

Why Suppliers Are Losing the Talent War

The challenge, however, extends beyond training. “Young engineers today are evaluating jobs very differently from previous generations,” said Munira Loliwala, HR strategist and talent expert.

Compensation still matters, she said, but so do work-life balance, career progression, learning opportunities and location.

“Large OEMs continue to benefit from strong employer brands and structured career paths. Component manufacturers often don’t enjoy the same pull, even when they are working on advanced technologies.” The problem is particularly visible in industrial clusters such as Chakan. Long commutes, housing constraints and infrastructure bottlenecks are making it harder for suppliers to attract and retain specialised talent.

At the same time, engineers skilled in electronics, battery systems and automation are increasingly being courted by technology firms, engineering services companies and global capability centres.

“The same engineer who can work on automotive electronics, battery systems or automation can also find opportunities in technology companies, engineering services firms and global capability centres. Manufacturing is now competing for talent with sectors that barely featured in the hiring equation a decade ago,” Loliwala said.

When a Supplier’s Problem Becomes an OEM Problem

For Chandrakant Alsundkar, an industrial relations expert and long-time observer of the Pune-Chakan manufacturing ecosystem, Mahindra’s disclosure highlights a deeper reality. “The supplier ecosystem is being asked to manufacture 2030-era components with a workforce that was largely trained for a different era of manufacturing,” he said.

More importantly, the consequences no longer stop at the supplier’s factory gate. “The OEM can automate a plant. It cannot automate an ecosystem. If the supplier ecosystem is weak, eventually the assembly line feels the impact.”

For years, inventory was considered production insurance. Increasingly, talent is becoming production insurance.

“Ten years ago OEMs worried about cost, quality and delivery. Today they are asking a fourth question: does the supplier have the people to sustain production?”

Why OEMs Are Taking Ownership

That shift is forcing automakers to move beyond traditional supplier audits. Industry executives say manufacturers are increasingly deploying supplier-development teams, helping vendors recruit and train workers, strengthening apprenticeship programmes and monitoring critical suppliers more closely than before.

“What we are seeing is a shift from supplier management to ecosystem management,” Loliwala said. “OEMs understand that if critical suppliers cannot attract, train and retain talent, the disruption eventually reaches the assembly line.” Several manufacturers are also strengthening links with ITIs, skilling institutions and industry bodies to create a larger talent pipeline for suppliers, while others are supporting retention and productivity initiatives at critical vendor facilities.

The Rise of the Firefighting Squad

In some cases, OEMs are dispatching manufacturing and quality specialists to supplier facilities for weeks at a time to stabilise operations and clear bottlenecks. Others are using dedicated logistics routes and premium transport arrangements to move critical components through the congested Pune-Chakan corridor.

“A missing worker at a critical supplier can stop production just as quickly as a missing component,” said a senior automotive executive who did not wish to be identified.

Can India’s Talent Pipeline Catch Up?

ASDC is expanding programmes around EV assembly, automotive electronics, automation and robotics while strengthening apprenticeship pathways and industry-led skilling initiatives.

“The industry is not short of ambition or investment,” Gulati said. “The real challenge is ensuring the talent ecosystem grows at the same pace as the technology ecosystem.”

“Earlier, companies focused on building their own workforce. Today, they have to think about the workforce across their entire supplier ecosystem,” Gulati said. “The industry can invest in new products, new technologies and new factories. But ultimately, growth will depend on whether the talent ecosystem can keep pace.” That is why, from Chakan to Chennai, a new mantra is beginning to shape India’s automotive industry.

Published on June 17, 2026