There are increasing software components to vehicles, with new intelligence being added and them getting more sophisticated. SaaS is a way to deliver the software, and we are seeing more software in the automotive industry. Venkat Nathan, Founder and CEO, Nesh LIVE, talks to us about the start-up’s transition to a vehicle connectivity solutions company, their USP and more.

While we see large players like Tesla choosing to build their vehicle connectivity solutions inhouse, SaaS could be the way to go for medium to small players in the automotive OEM space to enable these solutions. However, they may need to approach companies that offer full-stack SaaS solutions for vehicle connectivity to compete with the large players.

One such company is Nesh LIVE, which provides SaaS solutions for vehicle connectivity and was selected by Stanford University as one of the promising start-ups in India under the Seed Transformation Programme in 2017, and has close to about 100,000 vehicles in its system. Moreover, the start-up has been working with vehicle manufacturers for close to five years now.

“Our solutions are deployed at leading truck, bus and off-road vehicle manufacturers. Besides this, we are also working with electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers right now,” says Venkat Nathan, Founder and CEO, Nesh LIVE. “We are working towards helping these manufacturers extract, transfer and analyse battery and vehicle data in the cloud. This in turn is the bedrock for any mobility – that bedrock is quality data, and quality data comes with connectivity right at the production line and the latest sensors supporting the extractions. So when a vehicle is born, the sensors are put in right at the time of its birth as an OEM fitment rather than leaving it to the customer to buy it as an aftermarket fitment.”

The three-dimensional way
Nesh LIVE’s specialisation is that it works with manufacturers early on and tries to integrate its products into the manufacturing line. That way, the whole ecosystem benefits from quality data. In order to build intelligent insights on data, connectivity has to have all the dimensions, from vehicle data to user-behaviour to the environment. The start-up attacks the automotive OEMs’ problems in this three-dimensional way. Doing this provides insights not just for the manufacturers but for the entire network – everyone in the chain is allowed to see and access information that they are allowed to see and access.

The rating system
“Today, we collect close to 100 million data points a day. Nesh LIVE also provides rating systems for the vehicle as a feature, based on the data they get,” says Nathan and goes on, “This rating is useful for the fleet owner.”

The rating system is provided for the vehicle and drivers, and now Nesh LIVE will be extending very similar algorithms for battery rating of electric vehicles. There are a number of applications for battery rating; for one, it helps the user understand the health of the battery. And secondly, as these batteries come up for reuse in other sectors, the grading system will help decide their afterlife in the long run. In fact, the vehicle rating system helps people anonymously compare their own vehicles within their own fleet and other fleets as well.

“In summary, we identify what data is needed and work with the automotive manufacturers. We then extract that data and send it to the cloud. Once that data is sent to the cloud, we run a lot of analytics in the cloud and then provide insights to different stakeholders,” Nathan makes clear.

Nesh LIVE’s SaaS solution – from ICEs to EVs
Some aspects of the SaaS feature are common, while some are industry-specific. “For instance, bus manufacturers want to know when the bus shows the pick-up location in advance. While all applications need to be highly accurate, the accuracy requirements in the bus segment are much higher within SaaS,” Nathan tells us and goes on, “However, in case of construction equipment like earth movers, for instance, there is greater importance to monitoring its working hours rather than accuracy of its location since it is mostly restricted to select zones. Hence, there are small variations from segment to segment. Even EVs have some variations that we are addressing right now.”

Elaborating further on this, Nathan says, “The EV industry is very interested in having a lot of analytics on battery, especially the charging and discharging cycles and health of the battery. This in turn impacts the range of the vehicle, and the range of a vehicle is dynamic. The dynamic range prediction needs to take into account, along with the driver behaviour, such as braking and speed, the usage of the vehicle, the environment, the road surface etc.”

“The SaaS offerings include the mobile app for the driver. For example, the driver gets push notifications based on what we see in terms of his/her handling the vehicle, the way he/she drives, the battery being due for service etc. Besides, we also educate and engage the user for best practices of the EV vehicle,” he adds.

From mobile applications to vehicle connectivity solutions
In fact, Nesh LIVE was initially into building mobile applications for the fleet industry when the product was launched in 2015, before venturing into vehicle connectivity solutions. However, the transition wasn’t too difficult as the two fields are very related, Nathan claims. He asserts, “When we started back in 2015, we started with applications on the phone, predominantly focused on the driver dimension. We provided the driver with an app, like Ola or Uber do today, and basically tracked the phone. The industry had just begun to explore other forms of connectivity of tracking a vehicle back then. So what started in 2015 as GPS tracking and reporting has slowly morphed into a huge vehicle intelligence and analytics platform.”

GPS tracking was, in truth, seen as a low-end commodity product back in 2015. “So when we approached large automotive suppliers with our solution, they approached it cautiously,” Nathan tells us and continues, “However, we had to really convince them that while today it is only GPS, tomorrow it will be the black box of the vehicle – like the Wi-Fi of a house – enabling connectivity and becoming the point of access to the internet.”

Therefore, while the transition for the company from a technical perspective wasn’t much, convincing customers to adopt the technology and telling them that it would morph into providing intelligence for the vehicle and improving its efficiency and safety was difficult back then. “However, we saw the perspective change after 2019. Today, the end-user wants intelligent insights,” Nathan explains.

He further adds that Nesh LIVE has also created virtual sensors that direct the load of the vehicle. “We can tell if a vehicle is travelling with or without load by algorithms. This has further increased the utilisation of the vehicle,” he informs.

Reinventing and staying ahead
While the start-up has come a long way since its inception, it has to face competition like any other organisation and industry. Nathan cites that Nesh LIVE has competition at two levels – the IoT level and the transporter level.

“The IoT-level competition is quite generic and not focused on automotive; data is collected from any industrial equipment, is processed and analytics on it is provided. It is very broad-based,” he explains and goes on, “On the other hand, Nesh LIVE is very automotive-niche; we have people with experience in automotives and we have worked with automotive companies for nearly seven years. Therefore, we have built up a lot of domain knowledge that comes in handy to provide advanced analytics.”

“At the transporter level, one will find companies providing good GPS tracking solutions to transporters. These competitors are at the transporter level, meeting their respective needs,” Nathan further explains.

Coming to where Nesh LIVE stands out, Nathan highlights, “Our start-up does not provide just for the transporters. Our USP is that we provide a lot of features for the auto manufacturer, including the dealers and service network of the manufacturer. And all of this is automated as a production line fitment at the manufacturing line. So we try to stay ahead by being domain-focused and being a very holistic end-to-end player for the ecosystem – not just for the transporter.”

But staying ahead of the competition is not enough. Nesh LIVE has also been constantly working on enhancing its SaaS platform. The start-up invests 20-30 percent into new R&D initiatives of SaaS and is continuously improving. In fact, it has customers in Canada and has ongoing trials in Dubai and the US. Moreover, it has already run some trials in Nigeria.

Cater to the automotive ecosystem
Today, it’s all about providing intelligent insights, which has been a pull from the end-users themselves. The end-users want to increase their vehicle utilisation and get more revenue out of it. What’s more important is that the software architecture has to show agility for the vehicle from the very first day. Therefore, SaaS technology will not only improve the safety but also the efficiency and operation of every vehicle, and last but not least, help cater to the automotive ecosystem.

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Epsilon Advanced Materials (EAMPL) has developed a hard carbon anode material designed for sodium-ion batteries used in grid-scale Energy Storage Systems (ESS). Developed through internal research and development, the graphite-free material provides an alternative for cell manufacturers as sodium-ion chemistry gains adoption due to the abundance of sodium and its lower environmental footprint compared to lithium extraction.

The material utilises coconut shell waste as its primary carbon precursor. Through pyrolysis and high-temperature carbonisation, this agricultural byproduct is converted into a disordered carbon structure with the interlayer spacing and nanopore architecture required for sodium-ion storage.

This bio-based manufacturing process eliminates dependence on graphite and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by up to 50 percent compared to standard graphite anode production due to lower processing temperatures.

The microarchitecture of the hard carbon anode provides reversibility, cycle life, and charge-discharge capabilities required for grid applications undergoing repeated charge cycles.

The product launch follows commitments to sodium-ion cell production by global manufacturers, including CATL, alongside expanding research by cell manufacturers across Asia and India seeking components for energy storage systems.

Vikram Handa, Managing Director, Epsilon Group, said, “The clean energy transition needs materials that are affordable, available and easy to scale, faster. Sodium-Ion is the right chemistry for energy storage and Hard Carbon is the right anode for it. The feedstock is something India has in abundance, the process is cleaner than anything that came before it, and the performance is where it needs to be for real-world grid applications. We are building for what energy storage will look like ten years from now.”

The introduction of the hard carbon anode is part of Epsilon Group's expansion into battery materials, which also includes silicon-graphite anodes and Generation III Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) cathode active materials for lithium-ion applications. The expansion aims to establish manufacturing and export capabilities for battery components within India to support energy storage and electric vehicle sectors.

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French automotive supplier Valeo has been nominated by a major Indian automotive manufacturer to supply its Valeo Smart Safety 360 (VSS360) system for commercial vehicles.

The advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) is designed specifically for the Indian market and will be produced at Valeo's manufacturing facility in Sanand, Gujarat.

The VSS360 is a ‘one-box’ ADAS solution that integrates radar fusion directly into a smart front camera. This design allows vehicle manufacturers to remove individual Electronic Control Units (ECUs), reducing costs and simplifying integration into existing vehicle architectures.

A significant technical feature of the system is the Univolt Camera, which is compatible with both 12V and 24V electrical architectures, allowing it to be used in vehicles ranging from Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) to heavy-duty trucks.

The system utilises three radars and one camera to provide a suite of safety and comfort functions, including:

• Moving Off Information System: Protects pedestrians and cyclists during vehicle pull-away.
• Blind Spot Information System: Monitors side zones for vulnerable road users.
• Standard ADAS Functions: Includes Forward Collision Warning, Automatic Emergency Braking, and Lane Departure Warning.
• Driver Monitoring: Software that detects driver drowsiness and fatigue to mitigate accident risks.

The system has been tailored to meet upcoming General Safety Regulations in India and handles unpredictable traffic conditions common on Indian roads. It also supports over-the-air (OTA) updates to maintain software performance throughout the vehicle's lifecycle.

Marc Vrecko, CEO, Valeo Brain Division, said, "This award demonstrates how our high-end ADAS technology can perform in the world’s most demanding environments while drastically improving road safety. India is a cornerstone of our 'Elevate 2028' strategy and Valeo is committed to providing high-tech, scalable, and cost-optimised safety solutions that meet the specific requirement of Indian roads."

Jayakumar G, Group President & Managing Director, Valeo India, added, "This award marks an important milestone in expanding our ADAS portfolio in the commercial vehicle segment in India. By localising these advanced solutions, we aim to deliver highly competitive products tailored to our customers’ needs. Regulatory momentum is a key driver accelerating ADAS adoption and supporting our journey towards safer and smarter mobility in India."

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Hyundai Motor Group has expanded its Center of Excellence (Hyundai CoE) in India by forming a consortium with 7 universities to conduct research into battery and electrification technologies.

This initiative adds IIT Kanpur, IIT Hyderabad, VNIT Nagpur and Tezpur University to the existing partnership established in 2025 with IIT Madras, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay.

The Group is managing 39 joint projects through these institutions, focusing on battery cell safety, energy density and diagnostic systems. Research is specifically directed toward battery designs and materials intended for the Indian environment.

Technical work also includes the development of an AI-powered Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) platform and advancements in Battery Management Systems (BMS).

To facilitate technical exchange, the Group has introduced a Korea Visiting Programme for researchers and a series of global conferences and forums. These programmes are designed to connect government, industry, and academic leaders to discuss emerging electric vehicle (EV) technologies and share technical insights between India and Korea.

Chang Hwan Kim, Head of the Electrification Energy Solutions Tech Unit, Hyundai Motor Group, said, “By bringing together the distinguished professors and emerging researchers from these seven institutes, we can create powerful synergies that will yield immense value for both Hyundai and India's sustainable growth. I strongly believe that the Hyundai CoE will grow to become the premier expert network of the Indian academic community”.

The long-term objective of the project is to establish a research hub that provides solutions for the domestic automotive industry and supports the transition to electric mobility through local talent and institutional expertise.

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NXP Semiconductors has announced a collaboration with Quanta to launch a deterministic zonal networking solution designed for next-generation Software-Defined Vehicle (SDV) architectures.

The platform combines NXP’s S32 automotive processing platform with TrustMotion’s MotionWise middleware to provide predictable, real-time communication across vehicle networks.

The solution is engineered to solve a primary challenge for automotive manufacturers: ensuring precise timing across distributed compute and network components. By providing end-to-end determinism, the platform reduces the risk of errors during late-stage system integration.

The solution features an automated workflow for topology discovery and schedule generation designed to accelerate SDV program timelines. It combines NXP S32 processors, SJA1110 TSN-enabled switches and multi-PMIC power management into a single, validated system.

It provides low jitter and predictable latency across Electronic Control Units (ECUs) and in-vehicle networks, supporting Quality of Service (QoS). Thus making it scalable to support latency-sensitive applications including audio over Ethernet, high-performance compute (HPC) integration and real-time control.

Sebastien Clamagirand, SVP and GM, NXP Semiconductors, said, “Software defined vehicles require a fundamentally different approach to vehicle architecture – one that delivers deterministic timing across both compute and network at scale. We are helping OEMs overcome the limitations of legacy architectures, reduce integration risk and accelerate development of scalable zonal systems.”

Terrisa Chung, Vice-President and General Manager, Quanta, added, “Quanta’s Adaptive Zonal System is designed to deliver deterministic performance and system level scalability for next generation vehicle platforms. Working with NXP, we’re providing a ready to deploy foundation that helps our customers move faster while meeting strict timing, safety, and reliability requirements.”

The partnership aims to streamline the transition from domain-based designs to zonal E/E systems. NXP and Quanta have also confirmed they are working toward aligning this solution with the NXP CoreRide zonal reference system to support broader SDV integration in future vehicle programs.

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