The Spanish company has reached the milestone after 15 years of collaboration with the country’s rail industry, supplying more than 4,000 converters and participating in projects linked to network modernization
CAF has surpassed 2,000 passenger and freight locomotives equipped with its traction technology in India, a market where the company has worked with the local rail industry for 15 years. Since the program began in 2011, more than 4,000 traction converters have been supplied.
The project began with an order for just two prototypes based on IGBT technology—semiconductors used to control electrical power—and has gradually expanded in scale. Over this period, technology-transfer, testing, industrialization, and production-localization processes have been developed in India.
The initiative is being carried out in partnership with Indian company CG Power and Industrial Solutions and Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), one of Indian Railways’ leading locomotive manufacturing centers. By 2018, more than 250 CLW-built locomotives were already using CAF’s traction solution.
The progress made since then illustrates the scale the project has achieved. CAF reported in 2025 that it had reached 1,000 locomotives in commercial service in India with converters incorporating its technology. The latest figure now exceeds 2,000 units.
Technology for passenger and freight trains
The systems are used, among others, in WAG-9 and WAP-7 electric locomotives. The former are primarily intended for freight transport, while the WAP-7s operate passenger services.
CAF Power & Automation, the subsidiary specializing in railway power and control systems, has contributed to the evolution of these vehicles’ traction systems toward solutions based on IGBT technology.
The converter is one of the core components of an electric vehicle’s traction chain. Its function is linked to managing the energy ultimately used by the motors to move the train. CAF develops converters for both direct current and alternating current and integrates them into different types of railway rolling stock.
The Indian project also has a distinctive industrial dimension: growth in supplies has been accompanied by technology transfer and expanded production capacity within the country itself, in collaboration with local partners.
From locomotives to the Vande Bharat Express
CAF Power & Automation’s operations in India are not limited to WAG-9 and WAP-7 locomotives. In 2019, the company was selected to develop and manufacture a prototype traction chain and various electrical components for the so-called Train 18.
The train later became known as the Vande Bharat Express, one of the programs associated with the modernization of India’s railways.
The project’s development also provides a measure of CAF’s progress in one of the world’s largest rail systems. From the two prototype converters ordered in 2011, the partnership has grown over 15 years to more than 4,000 units supplied and more than 2,000 locomotives equipped with this technology.
Growth has been supported by a model combining technology developed by CAF with production and industrial collaboration in India, a formula that has enabled the program’s volume to expand steadily from its initial trials to its current scale.
