Auto Monitor - 1-15 October 2011

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I N D I A ’ S N O . 1 M A G A Z I N E F O R A U T O M O T I V E N E W S , V I E W S & A N A LY S I S

Auto Monitor 1-15 October 2011

w w w.amonl ine.in

INTERVIEW “BETTER EFFICIENCY STANDARDS ARE DRIVERS OF COMPETENT TECHNOLOGY” Anup Bandivadekar, Programme Lead, Passenger Vehicles, ICCT

Skoda extends Fabia range Our Bureau Mumbai

S

kodaAuto India, a fully owned subsidiary of Skoda Auto recently introduced the Fabia Active (`4.39 lakh for petrol and `5.46 lakh for diesel) and the Fabia Ambition (`4.85 lakh for petrol and `5.94 lakh for diesel) variants. The packaged version of the Active plus is priced at `4.58 lakh for the petrol variant and `5.66 lakh

Skoda Fabia

for the diesel version while the Ambition plus is priced at `4.99 lakh and `6.07 lakh for petrol and diesel version respectively. The packaged versions give customers the option to upgrade with factory fitted packages, which include a host of convenient features.

DATA MONITOR Domestic Top 5 PV-makers Aug-10

MSIL HMIL

“Self-Sust aining” • Economic returns for Industry • No/limited subsidies required henceforth

“Economically Viable”

3 Local Manufacturing Capability

• Viable solution for consumer at an acceptable price point

“Tipping Point”

2 Technology and Application Development/ Acquisition 1 Creating Consumer Acceptability

“Infeasible” 2011

4 Infrastructure

2016

Time

2017-18

` 50

STUDY NATIONAL HYBRID/ MOBILITY MISSION

2020

Note: Japan’s investment is from 1998–2014 Source: ICCT, Booz & Company analysis

Pg 14

Rane bags order from VW for CNG engine valves

NEWS IN BRIEF

Sector

Pg 8

56 Pages

Potential Roadmap for Hybridization/ Electrification

xE V P enetration

Vol. 11 No. 18

Aug-11

Change

92,674

77,086

-16.82%

28,601

26,677

-6.73%

TML

30,192

21,752

-27.95%

M&M ^

13,796

18,088

31.11%

Toyota

6,361

11,679

83.60%

Domestic Top 5 2W-makers Sector

Aug-10

Aug-11

Change

HML

413,162

491,120

18.87%

BAL

209,567

226,559

8.11%

TVS

148,081

163,705

10.55%

HMSI

125,559

152,338

21.33%

IYM

22,672

29,934

32.03%

Domestic Top 5 CV-makers Sector

Aug-10

Aug-11

Change

TML

30,605

38,122

24.56%

M&M

7,533

10,139

34.59%

ALL

6,705

6,168

-8.01%

VECV Eicher

2,582

3,407

31.95%

FML

1,736

2,025

16.65%

* Source: SIAM/ ** Excluding exports/ *** all sub segments considered/ ^ excluding MRPL

T Murrali Chennai

T

he Chennai headquartered Rane Engine Valves (REVL) has bagged an order from Volkswagen to supply both inlet and exhaust valves for the 1.4litre CNG engine. This is for the fi rst time REVL is receiving orders for both the valves as fi rst source. The company has been catering to the requirements of the German OEM since 2004, beginning with one part number for 1.4-litre engine. Gradually, it has expanded its product portfolio and now supplies a wide variety of engine inlet valves to 1.6, 1.9 and 2-litre engines. In addition to Volkswagen, the company is also the preferred supplier to German engine major, Deutz. Speaking to Auto Monitor, President, REVL, G Ramkumar said, “It’s a huge expression of confidence,” by Volkswagen. The company is now gearing up to commence its supplies to the OEM’s manufacturing plants in Salzgitter and Chemnitz in

Germany. In addition to the current Volkswagen order, REVL also foresees the demand increasing from certain segments of OEMs, due to segmentation as well as market expansion. In order to cater to the demand, it is looking at enhancing its capacity and towards this, it has earmarked `43 crore for this year. REVL has a wide range of customers—not only from different segments but from also having a band of varied consumption pattern. For instance, one of its customers—Birla Yamaha takes about 2,000 valves per month, while Hyundai Motor India consumes 21,000 valves per day. In a bid to optimise its plans, the company that holds 41 percent market share in OEM business, has enunciated a concept ‘key customers’ encompassing six of them—Hero MotoCorp, Hyundai Motor India, Maruti, Mahindra in the domestic market and Deutz and Volkswagen in exports. Secondly, it also created ‘strategic customers’ in which, REVL though currently has marginal presence,

G Ramkumar, President, REVL

it displays immense potential for growth. Some of its strategic customers include HMSI, TKM and Mahindra Navistar who are gearing up to aggressively address their respective markets. “The strategy is to prioritise the expansion plan based on customer segmentation since funding the growth is becoming an issue due to hardening of interest rates,” he said. Close to 90 percent of the product manufactured by the company is engine valves, eight percent guides and the rest is tappets. The only location in which

the company has space to expand is at its Trichy plant, which is the youngest of all the facilities. Since it does not want to put all the eggs in one basket, REVL is looking at options to set up a greenfield facility near its second plant situated in Medchal near Hyderabad. It already owns a plot and hopes to take a call on construction of the plant early next, he said. The company is creating a new line for Hero MotoCorp, Volvo and VW Brazil at its Trichy plant. Besides, it has budgeted for an additional manufacturing line but yet to assign a customer to it, though it has several options including Deutz, Mahindra twowheelers and Tata Motors. While it is planning to double the plant floor size, the actual capacity will increase from the current 31,400 to 81,000 valves per day by FY 2014. This is due to implementation of Lean Production System, he said. Last year, the company reported a turnover of `286 crore with 55 percent from domestic market, 30 exports and the rest from replacement market.

Sintered parts to help contain vehicle weight Akmal Rahman B Chennai

J

apan headquartered, powder metallurgy sinter metal parts manufacturer, Porite Corporation is working on gear densification technology for automotive applications. The new technology for gear surface densification will enhance the gear by improving the surface density at the gear tooth. Established about 60 years ago, Porite Corporation of Japan is known for powder metallurgy and sintered metal parts. It has manufacturing facilities in Japan, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and USA. Mahindra Hinoday Industries, which manufactures magnetic products for automotive industry, is representing Porite Corporation in India since 2009. The Assistant Manager, Business Development, of Mahindra Hinoday Industries, Nikhil Patil, told Auto Monitor that “Porite group manufactures powder metallurgy sintered prod-

ucts catering to several industrial segments including the automotive segment. The advantages of these products are primarily due to the unique ‘net-shape’ technology, which helps to manufacture components and gears without further machining processes. These products have higher raw material utilisation, productivity and consistency compared to any other technology.” Porite is also into warm compression, metal injection moulding, sintered hardening and vacuumsintered technologies. Speaking about the powder metallurgy product, Patil said that it is better than casting or the forged component, as the new material being developed can offer better metallurgical properties. The advantages of these products are cost effectiveness and minimal part-to-part variations because the dimensions are tool dominated. The ‘net-shape’ technology eliminates the secondary machining processes eventually enhancing the material utilisation

Nikhil Patil, Asst Manager, Business Development, Mahindra Hinoday

up to 95 percent. In the process, the wastage of raw material is also contained substantially. According to him, the process has been declared as a ‘Green Technology’ by Metal Powder Industries Federation. The company also provides technical solutions, besides offering faster product development process at a competitive cost. Some of the components manufactured through this technology include synchroniser hubs and rings, pulleys and parts for shock absorbers and

seats. It also manufactures nonautomotive components and smaller powder metallurgy parts like micro bearings that weighs around a milligram and largest part like a pulley—in the order of few kilograms. The 2011 Ford Edge with a 3.7-litre engine is a good example of how an automobile can be improved by the powder metallurgy technology, with an estimated 30 kg of such parts. And the new programmes in the pipeline will add even more such parts, he said. The average powder metallurgy part by weight in a car in North America is 18.6 kg, eight kg in Japan, 7.2 kg in Europe while it is less than five kg in India. Mahindra Hinoday has two manufacturing facilities in Pune making ferrite magnets and automotive castings. It manufactures about 70 percent of the magnets used in India for automotive motor applications like starters, power windows, engine throttle controls, HVAC blowers, engine fans and sunroof systems and alternators for two wheelers.


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