From Weapons to Wheels: Sweden’s Make-in-India Partnership Moves Into a New Phase

India’s industrial partnership with Sweden is no longer limited to conventional trade or technology imports. It is steadily moving into a deeper phase where Swedish companies are manufacturing, designing, localising and exporting from India. From Saab’s defence production to Volvo’s transport and R&D ecosystem, and from Ericsson’s telecom manufacturing to green-industry collaboration, the India–Sweden relationship is becoming a practical example of how “Make in India” can work with advanced European technology.

The scale of the relationship has grown sharply in recent years. According to the Ministry of External Affairs’ India–Sweden brief, bilateral goods trade rose from USD 2.86 billion in 2016 to USD 7.75 billion in 2025. Sweden is also listed as the 22nd-largest investor in India, while around 280 Swedish companies now have a business presence in the country. These include major names such as Ericsson, Saab, Volvo, Sandvik, Alfa Laval, IKEA, SKF, ABB, AstraZeneca and Tetra Pak. The same MEA brief notes that Swedish companies have a long record of manufacturing in India and rank among the leading foreign participants in the Make-in-India ecosystem.

The defence pillar of this partnership is most visible through Saab’s Carl-Gustaf programme. Saab has already performed the groundbreaking for its Carl-Gustaf manufacturing facility at Jhajjar in Haryana, which the company describes as the first Carl-Gustaf manufacturing facility outside Sweden. The facility is intended to manufacture Carl-Gustaf M4 systems for the Indian Armed Forces and components for export customers around the world. Saab has also said it will work with Indian sub-suppliers and continue partnerships with Munitions India Limited and Advanced Weapons and Equipment India Limited.

This is important because it shows a shift from simple import dependence to defence-industrial integration. Saab’s own earlier announcement said the India facility would support Carl-Gustaf M4 production for the Indian Armed Forces and global users, deploy advanced manufacturing techniques such as carbon-fibre winding, and meet Make-in-India requirements. The Carl-Gustaf system has served with the Indian Army since the 1970s, but the new facility gives India a stronger role in the modern version’s production chain.

The “wheels” side of the partnership is equally significant. Volvo Group says its India journey spans more than two decades across mining, infrastructure, mobility, urbanisation and skill development. The company says India hosts its largest R&D and IT hub outside Sweden, while its joint venture with Eicher Motors is important in medium-duty engine production. Volvo Group India lists three manufacturing plants, 4,500 employees, and more than 150,000 trained truck and bus drivers as part of its Indian footprint.

Volvo’s Hosakote site near Bengaluru gives the partnership a strong manufacturing base. The company says the site houses truck assembly, a distribution centre, a remanufacturing facility, a cab manufacturing facility, welding, painting, trimming, axle assembly, final assembly and testing. By the end of 2023, the plant had produced more than 25,000 Volvo trucks, while the Hosakote facility also supports buses, construction equipment, driver training and product validation.

Ericsson adds another layer to the India–Sweden manufacturing story. The Swedish telecom major says it established its first vendor-led production in India in 1994 and now manufactures 5G radios, RAN Compute, advanced passive antennas and microwave products in partnership with Jabil in Pune. It is also expanding antenna production with VVDN, while its India R&D centres in Chennai, Bengaluru and Gurugram work on AI, 6G and semiconductor design.

In 2025, Ericsson announced its first locally manufactured, export-ready antenna from India, calling the country a strategic base for innovation and delivery. The company said its India-made antennas would serve both domestic and global demand, showing how India is being used not just as a market, but as a production and export platform for advanced telecom equipment.

The larger diplomatic framework is also active. During Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal’s Sweden visit in 2025, India and Sweden discussed advanced manufacturing, innovation, green technologies and sustainable solutions. PIB specifically named Ericsson, Volvo Group, IKEA, Sandvik, Alfa Laval and Saab as major Swedish companies with a significant presence or interest in deepening ties with India.

This makes the Sweden partnership different from a purely transactional investment story. It spans defence production, telecom networks, mobility engineering, clean technology, research, industrial transition and resilient supply chains. For India, the value lies in manufacturing depth, supplier development, exports, advanced skills and technology absorption. For Sweden, India offers scale, engineering talent, market growth and a strategic production base outside traditional Western industrial geographies.

The real significance of the “weapons to wheels” story is that it captures the broadening of Make in India. It is no longer only about assembling products domestically. In the best cases, it now involves local suppliers, R&D centres, global exports, defence production, telecom design, mobility innovation and green-industry cooperation. Sweden’s role in this transformation is becoming increasingly visible, and the partnership now looks less like a buyer-seller equation and more like a long-term industrial bridge between European engineering and Indian manufacturing scale.