Why HVAC Motors Are Moving to BLDC and PMDC, and How India Is Building the Plants to Make Them

Introduction

India installs more air conditioners, fans and blowers every year than almost any country on earth, and almost every one of them has an electric motor inside. For fifty years those motors were induction or shaded-pole designs: cheap, rugged and inefficient. That era is ending. The HVAC industry is moving to permanent-magnet motors, BLDC and PMDC, and India is building the factories to make them at home. This report explains why the shift is happening, how big it is, who is investing, and how a lamination supplier like SNV fits into it.

Body: what changed in HVAC motors

From induction to permanent magnets

An induction motor makes its rotor field by induction, which costs energy; a permanent-magnet motor carries the field in magnets, so the rotor has no copper loss and the motor runs 20–30% more efficiently at the same size. Add an electronic drive (that is the "brushless DC" in BLDC) and the motor can vary its speed to match the load instead of running flat out and throttling the air. For a fan that runs 12 hours a day, or an air-conditioner compressor that cycles all summer, that variable speed is where most of the saving comes from.

What is pushing the change

• Energy rules. BEE star labelling for ceiling fans came into force in 2023 and is being tightened; industry leaders are now asking for a mandatory minimum efficiency level, which would push the whole market to BLDC. Inverter ACs already dominate because of the star-rating method that rewards variable speed.
• Electricity cost and heat. Summers are longer, grids are stressed, and a household running three fans and an AC notices the bill. BLDC fans pay back their premium in about two years at typical Indian tariffs.
• Localisation. The PLI scheme for AC components and the Make in India push have moved compressor, motor and controller production to India. Around 50–60% of AC components were still imported in 2025; that share is falling every year, and motors are one of the easiest parts to localise.
• Customer expectation. Quiet, app-controlled, remote-controlled fans and ACs only work with electronic motors.

The size of the opportunity

• India's room-AC market reached a record 12.5–13 million units in FY25 (ICRA). After a weather-related dip in FY26, the long-term growth outlook of 10–12% a year is intact, and household AC penetration is still below 10%.
• The Indian fan market is about ₹15,000 crore (FY26, Havells) and has grown at roughly 10% a year, with BLDC fans growing much faster than the market.
• Every room AC carries two to three motors (compressor, outdoor fan, indoor blower); every fan carries one. At today's volumes that is 40–60 million HVAC motor cores a year, rising with every star-rating revision.
• Each core is a stator and a rotor lamination stack. In 0.35–0.50 mm CRNO, a typical AC fan motor uses 0.6–1.2 kg of laminations; a BLDC ceiling-fan motor about 0.4–0.7 kg; an inverter compressor 3–6 kg.

Who is building where: India's new HVAC footprint

The map of Indian HVAC manufacturing has shifted south in five years, and most of it sits within a day's drive of Bengaluru.

Industry estimates put Sri City's combined AC capacity at about 8 million units in 2027, around 60% of India's production, with the Chennai–Sriperumbudur–Sri City corridor forming one 100 km manufacturing belt. Component suppliers in that belt, including motor makers, are being asked to localise fast.

The steel is coming home too

A lamination is only as good as the electrical steel it is cut from, and until recently nearly all CRNO (cold-rolled non-oriented) steel for motors was imported, mostly from China, Japan and Korea. That is changing:

• JSW Steel, Vijayanagar (Karnataka): a new electrical-steel complex with about 600,000 tonnes a year of capacity, due for completion in 2028, aimed at motors, appliances and electric mobility, three hours from our plant.
• JSW–JFE Electrical Steel: the joint venture is building 350,000 tonnes a year of grain-oriented steel at Vijayanagar and Nashik (full production 2027–2030), and has taken over the former thyssenkrupp Electrical Steel plant at Nashik.
• Anti-dumping duty on Chinese CRNO (in force since 2025) has made domestic grades competitive and pushed OEMs to qualify Indian sources.

For a press shop this matters twice over. Local steel means shorter lead times and smaller minimum coil orders for prototypes, and it means the grades Indian motor makers specify (50C470, 50C350, 35C300 and, soon, self-bonding grades) will be stocked in India rather than shipped to order.

What an HVAC motor maker needs from its lamination supplier

1. Volume with consistency. A fan or AC programme runs 300,000 to 3 million sets a year. The press must run at 200–400 strokes a minute for months, and set number 2 million must match set number 1.
2. Low cogging and low noise. BLDC fans are sold on silence. That comes from accurate slot geometry and skewed rotors; both are decided in the die.
3. Thin teeth, low burr. High-efficiency BLDC stators have narrow teeth where a 0.05 mm burr is a 5% loss of tooth. Burr must be held at 0.02 mm or better.
4. Different stack heights from one tool. A fan family has 1200 mm, 1400 mm and BLDC+ variants. Stack height should be a setting, not a new die.
5. Fast prototypes. A new motor platform needs 50 sets next month, not next quarter.

How SNV supports this growth

SNV was built for exactly this market: high-efficiency permanent-magnet motors made in India in large numbers.

• The Yadon J76-220 line. A 220-ton high-speed press with a 1900 × 950 mm slide, 120–400 strokes per minute, Yaskawa servo feeding of 0.2–1.0 mm strip up to 400 mm wide, and a double-plunger drive that holds the tool parallel to the bolster within 50 µm. Built for automotive and EV cores, which means HVAC cores are well within its comfort zone.
• In-die auto stacking, auto skew and independent stack-height cams. Stators and rotors leave the press as finished stacks with the skew built in, and different heights run from one tool. This is what keeps a BLDC fan quiet and a product family economical.
• Burr ≤ 0.02 mm, stacking factor 97–98%. Measured on every lot, documented under ISO 9001:2015; IATF 16949 implementation started in 2026.
• Steel to suit the rating. CRNO 50C1300 to 35C300 class for star-rated and inverter products; CRCA CR2 to IS 513 where the drawing allows it. We advise which grade actually earns its cost in your motor.
• Prototype to production on the same line. Small pilot lots for new motor platforms, then progressive tooling for volume, so what the lab tested is what the line makes.
• Location. Bengaluru: within 100 km of Hosur, a day's truck from Chennai, Sri City, Coimbatore and Hyderabad, and an easy flight from Pune.

Summary

• HVAC motors are moving from induction to BLDC/PMDC/PMSM for 20–55% energy savings, driven by BEE star ratings, electricity cost and inverter technology.
• India's AC market is 12–13 million units a year and its fan market ₹15,000 crore; together they need 40–60 million motor cores a year.
• Daikin, Blue Star, LG, Carrier, Havells Lloyd, Mitsubishi Electric, Samsung, Voltas and FläktGroup have all opened or expanded South Indian plants; Sri City alone will make about 60% of India's ACs by 2027.
• JSW and JSW–JFE are adding close to a million tonnes of electrical-steel capacity in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
• SNV's 220-ton high-speed line, in-die stacking and skew, 0.02 mm burr and prototype-to-production path are built for high-efficiency HVAC motor laminations.

Sources

• ICRA via Indian Retailer, Sept 2025: room-AC volumes FY25 and FY26 outlook.
• T&D India interview with Havells, Oct 2025: fan market size, BLDC savings, BEE rating.
• Comparos and Urban Acres, Oct 2026: Sri City AC cluster, 8 million units, 60% share.
• Mitsubishi Electric India press release, Feb 2026: Chennai plant capacities.
• John Cockerill, June 2026: JSW Vijayanagar electrical-steel lines; JFE Steel, Aug 2025: JSW–JFE capacity expansion.
• Outlook Business, 2026: Voltas Q1 FY27 volumes.