Sai Sridhar, MD, Elektrobit India and CRO for India & ASEAN, shared insights with Future Mobility Media on SDV innovation, cybersecurity, and sustainable growth.
Congratulations on your appointment as MD while continuing as CRO for India & ASEAN. What drives your dual-role strategy, and how do you manage both roles effectively?
Thanks for the wishes. I can but only thank the global leadership team at Elektrobit for their trust and confidence in me. The key driver behind the dual role is to ensure we are crating a high-performance team with a “customer-centric” mindset. This is critical in the given competitive environment to drive our winning aspiration and do more “IN the region FOR the region”. It is indeed quite challenging to manage both roles with the same level of effectiveness, but it’s gratifying to see how bringing in the “outside in” market view to our usually internally focused stakeholders can bring about a positive change, leading to improved performance. The initial days were indeed quite testing, but now with support from the team members, constituting of crucial stakeholders, it effectively runs as intended to.
With such a varied background across different industries and roles, how has that shaped your leadership style and approach to building teams?
I must admit that more than the industries served and/or roles assumed, it’s been the people with whom I have had the privilege to know and work alongside with have had a very deep influence on my preferences towards assuming a certain dominant leadership style which is more of a “participative” style complemented with a little radicalism. Finding the right mix of creativity and reality is very important in leadership, and this approach has worked quite effectively for me as a person, be it in problem solving or critical decision making or strategy formulation & deployment, or in building high-performance teams. I have also witnessed that a participative style, given my inherent characteristics, also helps build psychological safety, especially amongst younger team members who like to experiment but are afraid of the consequences, especially if it leads to failure. Seeing me participate as an equal from forming to storming to norming and thereof the pain and lessons we undergo in each stage cements the core value of any team building, which is trust, having the freedom to act and being there for one another.
Elektrobit India focuses heavily on software defined vehicles and cybersecurity. From your perspective, what’s the biggest challenge automakers face in transitioning to SDVs?
From our experience being in the region for now close to a decade, we have indeed seen some interesting strides towards SDVs by vehicle manufacturers in Passenger vehicles, 2 Wheelers, or the Commercial vehicle segment. One of the biggest challenges is in dealing with the fragmented legacy ecosystems where most of the OEMs have had highly distributed and hardware-tied ECUs, developed over decades with various Tier1s. Moving them to a centralized, service-oriented architecture (SOA) required deep reengineering. The next big challenge is in the cultural and organizational shift where OEMs must think and act like tech companies, not just hardware integrators. Shifting from mechanical-first to software-first thinking involves major mindset changes, internal restructuring, upskilling, and new workflows. Another challenge is in scalability & reuse of software, wherein mostly traditional automotive software was often project-specific and not reusable. This is a major architectural and mindset leap one must make to have this addressed. However, having spoken about these challenges due to the emergence of EVs, which are digitally native, we have witnessed some native OEMs address some of these challenges head-on and have made giant strides in creating a very nimble, frugal, and affordable SDV, keeping the Indian market in mind.
With vehicles turning into connected devices, cybersecurity is key. How is Elektrobit building security into the design from day one?
Excellent and a very important point. As vehicles become software-defined and connected, cybersecurity must be embedded from the start, not added as an afterthought. Elektrobit, as a key player in the automotive software ecosystem, is actively driving security-by-design principles across its offerings. Security is considered the core design principle of our middleware solutions. This is done through secure boot, secure communication, and access control to ensure checks and a train of trust. The Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) embedded in our products ensure security in the communication protocols. We also ensure that the OTA updates are hardened, where the update packages are signed, verified, and version-controlled. We also offer a range of services like static/dynamic code analysis, Fuzz testing, Penetration testing support, Threat Analysis (TARA) to ensure our customers stay compliant with the cybersecurity standards ISO/SAE 21434 and UN R155&R156. Elektrobit ensures that our software components meet ASIL (Automotive Safety Integrity Level) as well as cybersecurity levels.
With your background in energy and automotive domains, how do you define “sustainable growth” for Elektrobit India in the current market?
With my background in the energy and automotive sectors, I see sustainable growth for Elektrobit India not just as a function of expansion, but as a balance between scaling intelligently, evolving technically, and staying resilient in a rapidly transforming mobility ecosystem. Engineering impact at scale where growing headcount is not enough, our ambition is to increase the complexity, autonomy, and ownership of what we build. Taking the lead on critical SDV programs, safety platforms, and cloud-enabled services is central to that.
Productivity through Innovation, which emphasises building repeatable value through IP, accelerators, automation, and platform reuse, will allow us to scale sustainably without linear cost increases. Further, this is all possible only if we grow our people alongside our projects, through upskilling, leadership development, and creating an ecosystem where India’s top talent can work on global innovations with purpose and pride. Whether it’s making SDVs safer, greener, or more connected, our work must contribute to mobility that’s efficient, secure, and sustainable, echoing the energy sector’s core values of long-term resource responsibility. Sustainable growth for Elektrobit India is about creating an ecosystem where people, products, and platforms scale together, with global relevance, local agility, and long-term purpose.
Elektrobit’s EB corbos Linux for Safety Applications is gaining traction globally. How important is this tech in India’s new EV and connected-car ecosystem?
EB corbos Linux for Safety Applications is very relevant and increasingly important in India’s evolving EV and connected-car ecosystem, especially as the country transitions toward Software-Defined Vehicles (SDVs) and functional safety compliance becomes nonnegotiable. With the focus on EVs, there is a rapid shift to centralised architectures. Indian OEMs, be it PVs or E2Ws, are transitioning from traditional ECU-heavy architectures to more centralised compute models. EB corbos Linux enables high-performance domain controllers (Infotainment, ADAS) to run safety-critical applications on a Linux-based OS. This is ideal for EVs, which are software-dominant by design and need flexible yet safe compute platforms. EB corbos Linux is pre-certified and provides an ASIL-compliant base OS, reducing the cost and time of developing in-house safety solutions. It helps Indian OEMs/Tier1s build faster, compliant systems without reinventing the wheel. Not to discount, India’s startups and EV disruptors need a software platform that supports quick PoC development & safe scaling into mass production. EB corbos provides a rich SDK, safety mechanisms, and open standards (POSIX, Adaptive AUTOSAR compatibility), enabling faster iterations. This is great for fastmoving players who want scalable platforms without compromising safety.
Elektrobit recently linked up with Metoak to scale open-source SDV platforms in China. What lessons or strategies from this partnership do you want to bring into the Indian market?
Great observation, India’s SDV opportunity is not just in cost, it’s in scaling safe, adaptable, and localized SDV stacks fast. Elektrobit’s recent partnership with Metoak in China is a strategic move that offers valuable lessons for us here too in the Indian market, especially as India and China face similar SDV transformation trajectories: fastevolving EV sectors, rising tech-first OEMs, and demand for scalable, safe, cost-effective platforms. Opensource driven platform acceleration – The partnership focuses on scaling open-source SDV platforms with a partner who brings local system integration, hardware-software adaptation, and middleware, safety, and compliance expertise. The key thing is that working closely with local silicon providers will help build specific hardware abstraction layers and testing infrastructure for faster adaptation. At the core, government support via policy, open labs, and SDV standards plays a role in making open platforms viable; software companies like Elektrobit and other Silicon vendors in India should lead or participate in policyaligned SDV working groups to shape standards and adoption. Last but not the least, we need to create an “EB SDV Innovation Hub India” — a community of Tier-2/3 suppliers, academia, and startups to bring some momentum into this.
With cars turning into connected digital spaces, how do you see the in-car user experience changing for Indian consumers in the near future?
As cars rapidly evolve into connected digital spaces, the in-car user experience (UX) for Indian consumers is poised to undergo a transformative shift, shaped by rising digital expectations, affordability needs, and urban mobility trends. The most common thing seen is that Smartphone-Like interfaces become the norm. Indian consumers are already mobile-first, so they expect fluid, app-like experiences inside the car like large, high-resolution touchscreens (floating displays, curved HUDs), Android Automotive OS or OEM-customized OS with voice + touch + gesture control and seamless integration with mobile apps (WhatsApp voice, Spotify, Google Maps, etc.). Voice and multilingual interfaces are set to increase given the vernacularity and the linguistic diversity of our country. Natural language AI assistant will be used for navigation, vehicle functions, and localised content. Voice-first UX will break barriers for non-English speakers and first-time users. The other experience is being “online all the time”. Consumers will expect new features to “drop” into their car like phone apps. With the cockpit already being significantly upgraded, the focus will shift to Rear Seat Entertainment (RSE) offering a variety of entertainment, gaming, and personalisation. In a trafficheavy country, in-car entertainment in the rear seat will become a huge differentiator.
Given your long leadership journey, what has been the most rewarding milestone as MD so far, and where do you want to push next?
That’s a thoughtful and introspective question. It’s now only been 6 months since I assumed the role at the helm. Without a doubt, the most rewarding milestone in my journey so far as MD has been able to rally the team to transform into a more value-creating partner, given the competitive market in which we operate, alongside the shift to software-defined vehicles. Watching our people evolve, taking ownership, building the necessary competence, and co-innovating with clients has been gratifying so far. However, we have a long way to go to become more competitive in the fast-changing SDV landscape. We need to lead and not just follow, especially in areas like vehicle-cloud convergence, AI-driven mobility, and safe, secure software platforms for EVs and SDVs. We must move beyond project execution to IP creation, co-creation with OEMs, and be recognized not just for delivery excellence, but for setting the pace of innovation. Internally, I’m deeply focused on building a purposeled culture, one where people feel empowered, connected, and proud of the impact they make every day.
Finally, with India moving rapidly toward connected and electric vehicles, what is Elektrobit India’s boldest ambition over the next 18 months?
Our boldest ambition that is both aspirational and actionable over the next 18 months is to establish ourselves as the global engineering and innovation nerve centre for software-defined vehicles, delivering not only at scale, but as a strategic innovation hub that shapes how mobility software is designed, delivered, and experienced. We will increasingly anchor mission-critical global programs in SDV platforms, safety-certified OS, and connected mobility.
Lead end-to-end ownership of key software stacks, from architecture to validation, especially in areas like Adaptive AUTOSAR, cybersecurity, and vehicle-cloud interfaces. Drive productivity at scale by building reusable assets, automation-first DevOps pipelines, and domainspecific Centres of Excellence. More importantly, we aim to transform from a cost-effective delivery location to a strategic growth engine, one that co-develops the future of Elektrobit products, supports faster market entry for global OEMs, and helps Elektrobit scale innovation sustainably across regions. What does this mean to our stakeholders/ customers? Faster time-to-market through India-led acceleration, localised SDV solutions for highgrowth markets, and resilience, scalability, and IP creation from a single global hub. ■
Sai Sridhar,
MD, Elektrobit India
and CRO for India & ASEAN