Sona BLW Precision Forgings - known as Sona Comstar - is a mobility technology company that designs and makes the precision-forged gears, electric motors, and electronic systems inside vehicles, from passenger cars to electric two-wheelers and now trains. It began in 1995 as a joint venture pioneering a way to form gear teeth rather than cut them, later acquired the German company that invented the process, then bought a starter-motor business and a radar-sensing firm, each time adding a new layer of capability on top of the last. That same pattern - master a core manufacturing technology, then bolt on adjacent capabilities through acquisition and in-house R&D - explains how a single-product gear maker became a supplier with 29 products across four continents. # Business segments Five engines at different stages - a precision-forging cash cow, two electrification platforms scaling globally, a railway business bought for its cash flows, and a sensors-and-software unit that is the company's bet on intelligent machines - each built with the capabilities of the one before. ## 1. Driveline: the precision-forging engine that built the company **Differential gears and assemblies are the legacy business, still gaining global market share - the company now holds 8.7% of the world's differential gear market, up from 4.5% in 2019, and has shipped over 500 million gears since inception.** - **Forms teeth instead of cutting them** - the company pioneered precision-formed bevel gears in India, a process that shapes gear teeth rather than machining them from a blank, so material yield is far higher than traditional methods. This gives it a cost edge that has helped it capture dominant domestic shares: roughly 55-60% of Indian passenger-vehicle differential gears, 80-90% of commercial-vehicle, and 75-85% of tractors. - **Moved from selling a gear to selling the whole assembly** - it started with individual differential gears, then began supplying complete differential assemblies, and now offers full EV transmission solutions including spool gears and epicyclic geartrains, each step capturing more value per vehicle. A single gear can sell for as little as ₹45 or as much as ₹4,500 depending on vehicle size and torque, with North American averages higher because of large SUVs and pickup trucks. - **Built for every electric drivetrain architecture** - the company has solutions for all three EV layouts: one motor driving two wheels (needs a mechanical differential), one motor per wheel (needs compact gear reduction), and architectures where no mechanical differential is needed at all. It began supplying differential gears to the global EV market as early as April 2016, years before most suppliers. - **Global plants, local delivery** - driveline products are made in Gurugram, Manesar, Pune (including a Chakan plant with nearly 20 million gears of capacity), and a newer plant in Silao, Mexico that specialises in differential assemblies and reduction gears for battery electric vehicles. Historically, every dollar of capex in this business generates about two dollars of revenue. ## 2. Starter motors and micro-hybrid motors: the cash-generating bridge to electrification **Conventional and micro-hybrid starter motors still contribute over a quarter of revenue, and the company holds a 4.2% global share in a consolidating market where European competitors are retreating.** - **Acquired, not built from scratch** - the motor business came through the 2019 purchase of Comstar Automotive, formerly Visteon's starter-motor unit, giving the company instant scale in a product it had never made before. It has since produced 40 million starter motors cumulatively and ranks among the top two exporters of starter motors from India. - **Competes on power-to-weight, not just price** - its starter motors are designed to operate from minus 40°C to 140°C and are judged on power-to-weight ratio and durability cycles, not just cost. The domestic market share in India is 70-80%, a position built on decades of supplying local OEMs. - **Micro-hybrids are the growth layer inside the legacy business** - micro and plug-in hybrid starter motors now contribute a larger share of revenue than conventional ones, because they are needed in every hybrid powertrain regardless of engine size. This means the business is not dependent on pure internal-combustion sales; it benefits when automakers add hybridisation. - **Satellite assembly plants keep it close to customers** - starter motors are assembled in Chennai, Tecumseh (Michigan), Irapuato (Mexico), and Hangzhou (China), with the China plant being repurposed from conventional starter motors to traction and suspension motors as demand shifts. The motor business historically generates five to six dollars of revenue for every dollar of capex, a far lighter capital load than driveline. ## 3. Traction motors and controllers: the electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler platform **This is the high-growth, lower-margin engine that turns the company's motor expertise towards the electric two-wheeler and three-wheeler market in India - traction and suspension motors were the fastest sequential-growth products in the most recent year.** - **A family of motors purpose-built for small EVs** - the company launched its 'Motor T' family in 2022, claiming the highest efficiency (96%) and power density in the 48-volt category globally, with variants that deliver 14 kW of peak power from under 10 kg and a rare-earth-free version that eliminates neodymium magnets entirely. It also developed an integrated motor controller module that combines the motor and its control electronics into one compact unit, reducing wiring and improving heat management. - **Licensed technology to fill capability gaps** - rather than invent everything in-house, the company has struck licensing deals for magnetless motors (with IRP of Israel), switched reluctance motors (with Enedym of Canada), and electrostatic drive motors (with C-Motive of the US), as well as a pact with Equipmake for high-voltage spoke motors in the 100-440 kW range for electric buses and trucks. - **Rare-earth agility became a competitive weapon** - when China banned exports of heavy rare-earth magnets, the company's engineering teams re-engineered its entire motor product line to use light rare-earth alternatives without missing a single customer commitment. It is now developing products that use low-rare-earth magnets as a permanent substitute, achieving the same performance through design changes rather than material dependence. - **Capacity is being built ahead of demand** - the Chennai plant's EV traction motor capacity was expanded from 400,000 to 600,000 units, and a new 500,000-unit PCB assembly line was added, both approved in 2023. The company also won two nominations worth ₹8.2 billion for integrated motor controller modules for active suspension systems from an Asian EV maker and a European luxury-performance OEM. ## 4. Railway equipment: the newly acquired cash-flow engine **In June 2025, the company bought the railway business of Escorts Kubota, instantly adding brake systems, suspension, and couplers to its portfolio and making non-automotive revenue jump from 9% to 31% of the total.** - **Uses a different set of raw materials** - railway products consume iron castings, aluminium castings, cables, elastomeric pads, reservoirs, anti-skid devices, and speed sensors, a supply chain distinct from the steel alloys and copper wire that feed the automotive businesses. This means input-cost shocks in one part of the company do not automatically spill into the other. - **Order book already visible** - the railway segment accounts for roughly 5% of the company's total net order book, with 75 programmes across 22 customers, giving multi-year visibility on a business that was added only recently. ## 5. Sensors and software: the intelligence layer for connected machines **Through its majority stake in NOVELIC, acquired in 2023, the company designs radar sensors and perception software - the eyes and brains for autonomous vehicles, robots, and eventually humanoids.** - **Radar, not cameras** - NOVELIC specialises in radar sensing and perception, a technology that works in darkness, fog, and dust where cameras struggle, making it suited for industrial robots, autonomous ground vehicles, and zone-monitoring applications. The company is developing radars for 360-degree short-range coverage and in-cabin sensing. - **Software is the differentiator** - the integrated motor controller module for active suspension contains two million lines of code that adjust a vehicle's predictive suspension in real time, marking the company's entry into the "personalisation" domain of its E.P.I.C. strategy. Three engineering capability centres in Serbia back the sensors and software business, separate from the main R&D centres in India. - **Targets more than half the bill of materials in a humanoid robot** - the company believes its combined capabilities in gears, motors, controllers, and embedded hardware and software can address over 50% of the component value in a humanoid robot, and its board approved ₹626 million in capex in mid-2026 specifically for robotics components. It has already signed a collaboration agreement with Neura Robotics of Germany to jointly develop and industrialise robots and humanoids. # Group structure and partners **The company is promoter-led with a professional board, and its largest shareholder until 2023 was Blackstone - the Kapur family now holds about a third of the equity through Aureus Investment Private Limited.** - **Blackstone exited fully in March 2023** - funds affiliated with the global private-equity firm sold their remaining 20.5% stake via bulk deals, leaving the Kapur family as the largest shareholder at 33%. The board has nine directors, six of them independent and two of them women, with the promoter serving as non-executive chairman. - **Partnerships fill technology gaps rather than competing on cost** - the company has structured licensing and joint-development agreements with Equipmake (high-voltage spoke motors), Enedym (switched reluctance motors), C-Motive (electrostatic motors), and Neura Robotics (humanoid robots), each giving it exclusive rights for specific geographies or applications. It also invested $4 million in ClearMotion, whose active suspension technology is already in production in China using Sona Comstar's motor-controller actuator. - **MoUs with Indian research institutions signal where it is heading next** - agreements with IIT Hyderabad's TiHAN hub and IIT Madras-incubated ePlane Company cover autonomous ground vehicles, drones, and electric vertical-take-off-and-landing aircraft, areas where the company is developing gearboxes, motors, and inverters but has no commercial revenue yet.