Dhoot Moves Beyond Wiring Harnesses as EV Components Reach 23% of Revenue
When the auto industry talks about the EV transition, most of the attention naturally goes to carmakers. But every change in powertrain technology also reshuffles an enormous supplier network sitting quietly behind them. India's Dhoot Transmission is a good example of what that transition looks like further down the supply chain.
Best known for wiring harnesses, Dhoot is now building a broader EV component business around battery assemblies, onboard chargers, DC-DC converters and charging guns. According to Reuters, products outside its traditional harness business now account for roughly 23% of revenue, up from around 18% in fiscal 2024.
A five-percentage-point shift may not sound dramatic. For a company whose business has long been built around wiring, however, it is enough to show that the product mix is beginning to change.
India's EV shift is starting on two and three wheels
India's path to electrification looks rather different from markets where passenger cars dominate the EV conversation. Two-wheelers and three-wheelers are playing a much bigger role, and the reasons are fairly straightforward: they cost less, cover relatively short urban distances and are already deeply embedded in everyday transport and commercial use.
For a supplier such as Dhoot, that creates an opportunity to enter the EV supply chain without waiting for India's entire passenger-car market to go electric.
As electric scooters, motorcycles and three-wheelers grow, so does the demand for batteries, power electronics, charging hardware and the wiring needed to connect all of those systems together.
Wiring harnesses aren't disappearing with the engine
One of the easy assumptions about EVs is that fewer mechanical parts must mean fewer components overall. There is some truth to that on the mechanical side: an electric drivetrain does away with a long list of engine, fuel and transmission-related parts.
Electrically, however, vehicles are becoming more complicated rather than less.
High- and low-voltage circuits, battery connections, sensors, control modules, data networks and charging systems all need to communicate and carry power around the vehicle. Dhoot's management believes EVs can contain more wiring content than comparable combustion-powered vehicles in some applications, which means electrification does not necessarily make its core harness business obsolete.
The more interesting part of the strategy is what comes next. Instead of stopping at wiring, Dhoot wants to supply more of the electrical content surrounding it — including battery assemblies, onboard chargers, DC-DC converters and charging guns.
Non-harness products now contribute 23% of revenue
Dhoot reported annual revenue of about ₹45.3 billion for fiscal 2026, with Bajaj Auto accounting for roughly one-third of the total. At the same time, the share coming from products outside wiring harnesses has climbed to around 23%, compared with 18% in fiscal 2024.
That diversification requires considerably more than adding a few EV products to a catalogue. Dhoot has invested around ₹10 billion in capital expenditure over the past four to five years, and management expects substantial investment to continue as it expands both products and manufacturing capacity.
In other words, moving from traditional automotive components into the EV supply chain is a very physical transition. It takes new equipment, engineering capability, production lines and money.
The IPO is the headline — but the supply-chain shift is the real story
Dhoot is getting extra attention because of its upcoming initial public offering, scheduled to open from August 10 to 12. From an automotive perspective, though, the IPO is really just the reason everyone is looking at the company right now.
The more important question is what a traditional supplier decides it wants to sell for the next decade.
Being important to the internal-combustion industry does not automatically guarantee a place in the EV era. Demand for exhaust, fuel-system and some engine-related components will decline as electrification spreads. At the same time, batteries, power electronics, thermal management, charging hardware and electrical architecture are becoming more valuable parts of the vehicle.
Suppliers that can move their engineering know-how and existing customer relationships into those areas have a better chance of staying relevant as the industry changes.
Why ASEAN should pay attention too
This might look like a very Indian story at first glance, but Dhoot already has a direct connection to Southeast Asia.
The group operates DT Wiring Systems (Thailand) Co. Ltd in Chon Buri, Thailand, which Dhoot describes as a manufacturing and supply operation serving ASEAN markets. Its EV push therefore does not necessarily stop at India's borders.
There is another parallel. India and much of Southeast Asia both have enormous two-wheeler populations, while governments across the region are competing for EV, battery and component investment.
If Indian suppliers can use scale to bring down the cost of batteries, charging hardware and electrical components, the effects could eventually show up in ASEAN sourcing decisions, regional production strategies and the supplier networks used by automakers here.
The biggest shake-up created by EVs may not happen in showrooms at all. It may happen inside the component factories most drivers never see.
Change the powertrain and an entire group of suppliers can suddenly find itself selling less of what the industry used to need, while another group becomes much more valuable.
What makes Dhoot interesting is that it isn't treating electrification as a reason to abandon its wiring business. Instead, it is using that existing manufacturing base and customer network to increase how much content it can supply to each vehicle — moving from wiring into batteries, charging and power electronics.
For suppliers in Southeast Asia, that is probably a more useful EV trend to watch over the long term than simply counting which brand sold the most electric cars this month.
Follow Move Auto for more automotive news, EV technology, industry trends and the changes shaping the cars — and the supply chains behind them.
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