“We're focusing on India because it's a promising market, but not at all costs,” Jorg Burzer, CTO, Mercedes

It’s been a year since Jorg Burzer took over as CTO of Mercedes, the German automotive giant, and in that time, he has already been to India about three times.

That, in many ways, also underlines the role that India has been playing for the automotive giant, where it operates the Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India (MBRDI), its largest research and development center outside Germany. MBRDI began operations in India in 1996, initially to provide back-end support for the automaker, which had just stepped onto Indian shores, before growing it into a research and development center that now employs over 9,000 people.

Burzer, meanwhile, has a tough task at hand, especially since the automotive world undergoes a rapid shift, with autonomous vehicles, electrification, and growing competition from China, where European automakers have been steadily losing market share. In a sit-down interview with Fortune India, Burzer spoke about India, Mercedes’s MB.OS, autonomous vehicles, electrification, and winning in the Indian market. Edited Excerpts.

Q. As the CTO, how much of a role do you see India playing for Mercedes?

It’s my third time this year. For us as a company, and for me personally, it's very exciting what's going on here—the speed of innovation, especially at MBRDI. My first visit to India was in the early 2000s. MBRDI had a small team. Today, it's just unbelievable from a competence, experience, innovation, size, and global corporate standpoint.

We are in the midst of the biggest product launch program this company has ever seen. 40 new models until the end of 27. And the common denominator of this product launch program is MB.OS, our operating system. And MBRDI has played and is still playing an instrumental role in developing and improving that. So basically, in the two major domains we have at MB.OS, which are ADAS and user interaction, but also in the drive controller, powertrain, battery electric powertrain or conventional powertrain, and the body controller. You can see there is India in every Mercedes.

Q: How critical is the role that MB.OS is playing in the future that Mercedes is building?

The role of MB.OS is extremely important and a defining factor in the success of our products because it provides independence. You can use Google Gemini, or other AI agents in the car, for user interaction. We're working with NVIDIA on autonomous driving, not only on the hardware but also on the software stack. We've already introduced our Level 2+ system in the US, as well as the hands-free assist system. We are doing that now at the end of this year and then at the beginning of next year in Europe as well. So, this is extremely important. Without that, there is no way to be successful in the future and be competitive on the technical side.

Q. There is a lot of conversation around autonomous vehicles. How much of an uptake are you really seeing?

Well, autonomous driving systems obviously depend on many factors. What is very important is what we call the ODD, Operational Design Domain. That's basically the framework where you can use the autonomous system in terms of software, but also the sensor stack, which we have in the car. And that's different across markets. So autonomous driving will develop at different speeds in different markets. We see that it's already adapted very well in the United States, and it's beginning to be adopted in Europe. And we're already working on the next level, which is level 4 as well. So, we don't call it a robotaxi; we call it a Robo limousine from Mercedes. What you need for that is a capable software stack and a sensor set, but also the interaction between the software stack and the sensor set. And the team in India has made an extremely big contribution to making this interaction possible.

Q. But in the Indian or South Asian market, can autonomous driving work?

Well, I think the society in India is very, very focused on tech. Obviously, you always must consider the infrastructure and traffic situation. We know from countries in Southeast Asia that this can be challenging or different, but in general, it's a self-learning system. But different markets will move at different speeds. And in the end, the customer must decide. And we obviously always must do what the customer wants, and we must convince the customer of good products. That's our obligation to the customers. What is extremely important is safety.

Q. In the domestic EV market, your competitor has a bigger market share. What is your sense of electrification taking place in India and globally?

We are here with Ola Källenius (chairman of Mercedes) and the head of our supervisory board, Martin Brudermüller, and that shows how important this market is for us. In general, we are convinced that electromobility is the way to go. We are convinced this is the future of mobility. We will focus on this development with our global R&D team, but we will also offer electrified combustion-engine solutions in the future. In the end, we must convince with our products. What we are doing right now, and this is a pretty exciting task for an engineer, is not only working on the normal segments, but also on the performance segment.

Q. Are Indian customers willing to adopt electric vehicles at the pace you want them to?

It's not about what we want. We have to provide competitive products, and that's what we will do. And the order intake right now for the electric GLC is extremely promising. In Europe, we've seen several factors influencing the development of electromobility. One is the product; the other one is the charging infrastructure. And this has to be combined. Obviously, our obligation is to provide highly competitive products to the market, and then we will see. We look at all segments constantly in all markets. And we're focusing obviously on growth in India because it's a promising market, but not at all costs.

Q. You are the head of one of the largest automobile companies. With regard to the development that's happening in China, how challenging or how exciting is it for you?

China is always an interesting market, a very important market. India is a very important market, an exciting market from a tech standpoint, and Europe as well. We are a company that provides vehicles to more than 130 markets. For us, it's very important to listen to the customer and provide the best technology and the best product that is possible to our customers. China is a challenging environment right now from a market perspective, but also from a competitive perspective. But it's the same as in other markets: best products for the customers, convincing the customers, and then we will be successful.

Q. If you look at the next five years, what is the biggest bet that you'll be taking in the automobile space?

I wouldn't say bet. I would say more focus. On the one hand, you're always in R&D; you always talk about products. On the other hand, what we are seeing is that the process is also extremely important. And there we have opportunities. We just launched a program that is digitizing the whole development process. It's called PLM AI, product lifecycle management driven by artificial intelligence, with a goal and expectation of a 30% reduction in development time. In certain processes, development time is reduced by up to 50%, with a completely digitalized end-to-end process.

It's not only R&D, but it's also purchasing, sales, and after-sales. Most importantly, also production. We just reviewed one here in India where the team showed digitalized development of a crash box in the front section of the car, and the AI agent is taking thousands of different design characteristics, methods, and shapes into account. Combining that with the dimensions and the weight of the car, it then gives you instantly, in a couple of minutes, the best suggestion for the geometry of the crash box. So normally it takes you months to develop this and combine it. For the AI agent, it is simple tasks, and this is then contributing to saving time in the development process.

Q. Is that something that you felt was lacking? Or is that the necessity of the market?

Well, on the one hand, it's a necessity of the market because a lot of competitors are working on reducing the development times and being faster to market. It's necessary because of efficiency and costs. And yes, we must work on that to be successful in this competitive environment. That's clear. And there are endless opportunities to use artificial intelligence in the R&D process.