Motown India May 2013

MOTOWN INDIA Vol 3 / Issue 8 may 2013 www.motownindia.com

Motown Vol-3 • Issue-8 • may 2013 • 100

The pulse of the automotive industry

india

Escorts Ltd. Engineering growth

World’s No. 1 trade show

Special Report

RNI No DEL ENG/2010/34562

Bearing Special Pages 33-43

Royal Enfield Plant

UNO Minda Group Pages 54-59

TVS - BMW tie up

JCB Engines

bauma 2013 Pages 76-85

Tata Formula one

mi Editor’s note

There is something about Nikhil Nanda, Jt Managing Director of Escorts Ltd, that strikes you the moment you meet up with him. His passion and enthusiasm rub off on you. He wants to make his company Escorts Ltd an engineering powerhouse and a centre of excellence. He is banking big on two segments. One is the agriculture sector and the other the infrastructure sector.

Motown India met up with Nikhil Nanda and S. Sridhar, CEO, Escorts Agri Machinery at their office in Faridabad. Both exuded insurmountable energy and enthusiasm. They want to bring about a revolution in the agriculture space. It’s only when they give details about their plans that realisation dawns that they are indeed focussed so much on their goals. The cover story on Escorts Ltd is based on an extensive interview with both. Nikhil Nanda seldom speaks to the media. It was a proud moment for us when he agreed to give us an interview. Sridhar, on the other hand, is an expert on brand strategy and was till recently heading Bajaj Auto. It was pure passion that prompted him to join Escorts Ltd and look after its agri-business. For a man who managed motorcycles till recently, it’s quite commendable to see him handling tractors and other agricultural products with the same zeal and enthusiasm. The cover report is not merely a report on the rudimentary plans of a tractor major; it reflects the determination of a man in search of excellence. Nikhil Nanda and his team are out on a mission. At Motown India we have merely explained that in our own inimitable way!

P. Tharyan

Editor Punnoose Tharyan Editorial Advisors Salil Sharma, Alexander T., Annie Jacob -------------------------Contact For editorial editorial@motownindia.com For advertising sales@motownindia.com +91-9958125645, +91-9911729429 For subscription subscription@motownindia.com --------------------------

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Editorial Office 145 B /9,First Floor, Kishangarh, Opp. CNI Church, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 110070, Tel: 011-26122758/59, Tele Fax: 011-26122757 -------------------------Distributed By Central News Agency, New Delhi -------------------------EDITORIAL CONTENT The publisher makes every effort to ensure that the contents in the magazines are correct. However, he can accept

no responsibility for any effects from errors or omissions. Any unauthorised reproduction of Motown India content is strictly forbidden.

-------------------------Motown India is printed, published, edited and owned by Punnoose Tharyan and published from 4058 / D-4, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070. Printed at Pearl Printers, 52, DSIDC Shed, Okhla, Phase 1, New Delhi. This issue of Motown India magazine contains 100 pages including both covers.

May 2013 / 3

Contents

20. Royal Enfield commences production at Oragadam facility Royal Enfield has started commercial production from its new manufacturing facility at Oragadam, Tamil Nadu. Spread over 50 acres, the Oragadam plant starts with an installed production capacity of 150,000 units in the first phase. An initial investment of 150 crores has been made towards construction of this facility that will produce the full range of Royal Enfield motorcycles. The construction at the plant commenced in February 2012 and with civil work continuing around the clock, it was completed in a time of 11 months.

44. Escorts Ltd: Engineering growth

33. Bearing Special: Automotive bearings industry poised for phenomenal growth in India Even as the Indian automotive industry is getting supperattractive on the global map, the component suppliers are reaping the harvest. One such industry among them that witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last few years is the country’s bearings industry.

Escorts Ltd is today a 4,000 crore company that primarily earns its revenues from construction equipment, agricultural tractors and implements.

Around a year back the company merged a few of its group companies into Escorts Ltd. These included Escorts Construction Equipment Limited (ECEL), Escorts Finance and Investments Private Limited (EFILL) and Escotrac Finance Investments and Leasing Private Limited (Escotrac).

76. bauma 2013: Record turnout & business at world’s No. 1 trade show in Germany Bauma 2013, the world’s number one trade show for construction machinery, building material machines, mining machines, construction vehicles and construction equipment, concluded in Germany with some record turnout and business. The show, that can put even a glamorous auto show in India to shame, is held every three years in Munich, Germany.

4 / May 2013

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Candid views

Revival is round the corner Salil Sharma, Partner, Kapur Sharma & Co., www.kapursharma.com

T

he night is the darkest before dawn. A few months back most of the economist and financial analysts were writing the obituary of the Indian economy and its huge middle class demand. The current account deficit was ballooning with every passing month and the growth rate for 2012 – 13 was likely to fall to 5pc, the lowest level in the past decade.

In this scenario of gloom and doom, came the twin good news of international prices of crude oil and gold crashing to their ten-month and 26-month low respectively. It is good news for the Indian economy because these two products are item number one and two on our import list. A decrease in their value would have a very positive effect on the current account deficit of the country and would allay fears of past depreciation of rupee. The other green shoots of a reviving economy were provided by the Prime Minister Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC).

It is predicting that the GDP growth rate for 2013 – 14 would move up to 6.4pc as it feels that the Indian economy has already hit its rock bottom and is now on its recovery

6 / May 2013

path. Dr. Rangarajan said, “…the very high level of investment rate that we have even now gives us the hope that if we take action for speedy implementation of projects, we can achieve the higher rate of growth quickly even in the short term.” He has also hinted at efforts required for subsidy reduction and providing impetus to stalled infrastructure projects. The perception gathering common acceptance is that once the parliament session gets over, the finance ministry would take steps in speeding up the economic reforms like those enumerated by Dr. Rangarajan. The PMEAC, Department of Economic Affairs and the finance ministry have at one stage or the other called for reduction in interest rates. The RBI governor has been moving in this direction quite coyly.

The inflation numbers for the past month has been benign which might encourage the RBI governor to become less hawkish and go in for a 50 basis points reduction in the repo rate. This one step, in addition to the improvement in current account deficit, could be the elixir for the economy. The consumers would be relieved as their Equated Monthly Installments for Housing and Automobile Loans would fall. In fact those who don’t have such liabilities

would be encouraged by the lower cost of borrowing to going for such loans and in the process increasing demand for goods in services.

The manufacturers, especially the infrastructure companies would also be pleased by such action as their interest burden would fall and with improved cash flows they would also feel encouraged to undertake new projects.

The stock market has already taken cognisance of the above argument as the benchmark index Nifty has recovered from a low of 5477 on April 10, 2013 to above 5900 at the time of going to the press. The first industry to gain from this economic revival would be the automobile industry and that is the reason why shares like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto have not fallen much from their highs. In fact Maruti Suzuki is hardly 5pc away from its lifetime high and Tata Motors (despite its pathetic performance on the domestic front) is 9pc away from its all time high.

To conclude it can be said that the first light of dawn is visible on the horizon of Indian economy and it remains to be seen whether the day is sunny or overcast.

(Views expressed by the author are personal)

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Motown india highlights

Hero Eco to launch e-cycles for sub - Rs 20K In its bid to target the existing two-wheeler owners who are looking for an affordable zeroemission vehicle, Hero Eco is working on nano-segment e-bicycles which would be priced under 20,000. To be nearly 100pc localised, the product is already under development at its in-house R&D centre at Ludhiana.

Interestingly, the homegrown firm’s upcoming product will not be finding any competitors as e-bicycles are priced quite steeply in India.

“Our current range of e-bicycles from the Ultra Motors portfolio is 1.5 lakh and above. We are now developing similar products in-house but it will be priced under 20,000. Right now, the cheapest e-bike is 30,000+.

So the low-cost vehicle will be very affordable and cater to the masses,” Sohinder Gill, CEO, Hero Eco, told Motown India magazine in an exclusive interaction.

Hero Eco Ltd. is the newly formed umbrella company of the Hero Group that includes Hero Electric, Hero Exports, Hero Cycles, Mediva, Winn and Hero Ecotech. Hero Eco plans to invest 450 crore with the intention of turning this investment into 1,500 crore within the next five years.

The Hero Group is one of the world’s largest producers of two wheelers.

Avishek Banerjee

8 / May 2013

Jeev Milkha Singh endorses Volvo cars in India

Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo Auto India ropes in Jeev Milkha Singh as its Brand Ambassador. India’s torchbearer in Golf and Padma Shri awarded Jeev will endorse Volvo Cars as it enters a new phase of its growth in India.

Jeev became the first player from India to join the European Tour in 1998. He is the only Indian to win 2 Volvo Golf Tournaments internationally and is the most acclaimed Indian golfer in the world.

He was also the first to break into the top 100 in October 2006 with a career best position of 28th in the World ranking. He was honoured with the Asia Pacific Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th edition of the Asian Golf Monthly Awards - Widely regarded as the region’s premier annual poll of golf.

Tomas Ernberg, Managing Director, Volvo Auto India said, “The association came in very naturally to both of us and we came in to the synergy. Both Volvo Cars and Jeev

Milkha Singh represent perfection and continual growth. Volvo and Jeev share enduring association since April 2006 when he won the Volvo Master and became the second Indian player to win on the European Tour. Further strengthening our relationship we are extremely proud to announce Jeev Milkha Singh as our brand ambassador. As a part of this association Jeev will be driving the Volvo XC90 that will provide him safety, comfort, luxury and ample boot space for his Golf sets.”

“I have a long standing relationship with Volvo, it is not just a luxury car but an emotion. I am excited to be a part of the Volvo Family and today I stand proud to be representing Volvo Cars as its Brand ambassador. I redeemed my career by winning the Volvo Masters in 2006 making my country proud by being the first Indian to win in Europe and since then have not looked back” said Jeev Milkha Singh about endorsing Volvo Cars in India.

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Beyond Limits

POLARIS-ing adventure sports in India

T

ill recently offroading meant taking your heavy SUVs into sand and slush and experiencing the virtues of a four-wheel drive system, ensconced in your air-conditioned cabins in the sweltering heat and dust. One never really experienced the true spirit of adventure sports. With the coming in of Polaris all terrain

10 / May 2013

vehicles (ATVs) into India, there’s been an awakening of sorts. The true spirit of adventure has been rekindled in the hearts of several youngsters and their families across the country. They are flocking to dedicated Polaris Experience Zones to experience what it means to be rough and tough.

These Polaris Experience Zones feature mounts, climbs, axel breakers, water pit, side inclined slopes etc. These zones will either

have or will soon be having stateof-the-art hospitality facilities, workshop, first aid, training classes and other amusement areas to help families spend a perfect weekend.

The latest additions to this growing number of Polaris Experience Zones are the ones that have opened in India’s southern state of Karnataka in Bengaluru.

Polaris recently inaugurated two off-road circuits in Bengaluru in association with Sarjapur based

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Beyond Limits

Pankaj Dubey, Managing Director, Polaris India Pvt. Ltd, inaugurating Polaris Experience Zone in Bengaluru

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Play and Yeshwanthpur-based Target Games & Facilities Pvt. Ltd. With the Polaris Experience Zones in place, hard-core adventure and motorsports enthusiasts can now experience the thrill of riding the heart thumping series of power sport vehicles lined up by Polaris.

Polaris India Pvt. Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Polaris Industries Inc of the US. While adventure sports have taken on an entirely new definition with these Polaris Experience Zones, it’s also spawned a new avenue of entrepreneurship. Young budding entrepreneurs are eager to set up these zones with Polaris ATVs, convinced by the business opportunities it is ensuring.

Says Pankaj Dubey, Managing Director, Polaris India Pvt. Ltd, at the launch of the Bengaluru Polaris Experience Zones, “Bengaluru has a rich racing culture and has a wide variety of terrains.

Hence the off-road vehicle segment has the potential for growth. We are pleased to start Polaris Experience Zone with Play and Target Games & Facilities to offer off-road motor experience to motor sports lovers in Bengaluru.”

While lauding the efforts of the companies in setting up these Polaris Experience Zones, Dubey notes that southern India is an important market for his company as it contributes majorly towards its growth story in India.

“We foresee huge interest

and potential in this market and plan to introduce more off-road tracks in southern India. We plan to increase the number of such tracks from 13 to 25 by this year-end,” he says.

Dubey notes that with the introduction of such zones across the country, his company’s purpose is to sensitise the consumers and create a new market for recreational vehicles and to generate more interest in these activities.

Polaris seems to have stirred a pent up desire among Indians towards adventure sports with its vehicles at these zones. Polaris Experience Zones are now situated in Greater Noida, Ahmadabad, Bhopal, Nagpur, Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Coimbatore, Munnar and Chennai. Bengaluru is the latest to join this craze for Polaris Experience Zones. Polaris dealerships too have increased to 14 in number and are spread across the length and breadth of the country.

The company plans to set up mobile vans with essential equipment and tools to reach customers’ doorstep in case of unscheduled service.

Polaris currently manufactures a diverse range of products for all age groups and a variety of activities, such as Recreation, Sports, Defence, Beach & Forest Patrolling, Rescue, Agriculture, etc. Engine displacements range from 50cc to 900cc and come in petrol, diesel and electric variants.

May 2013 / 11

Motown india highlights

Honda Amaze to slug out in compact sedan segment

Honda Cars India Limited (HCIL) has finally launched its eagerlyawaited Amaze at a price range of 4.99 lakh to 7.60 lakh (exshowroom, Delhi). Incidentally, this entry level sedan is the company’s first diesel offering in India. While the diesel option will be priced between 5.99 and 7.60 lakh, the petrol version will be available at a price range of 4.99 lakh to 7.50 lakh. The sedan version of the Brio has been developed keeping in mind the Indian conditions. It will be locking horns with Maruti Suzuki’s Swift Dzire, which is priced between 4.92 lakh and 6.74 lakh for the petrol option and between 5.99 lakh and 7.5 lakh for the diesel variant. Other competitors include Chevrolet Sail sedan, Tata Manza, Hyundai Accent, Ford Fiesta Classic and Mahindra Verito. While the Japanese automaker has retained the master brand ‘Brio in Thailand, the name has been done away with in India. Nearly 22,000 units of the model have been booked.

12 / May 2013

MINI begins local production at the Chennai plant in India

Countryman - Mini Cooper S Mini has announced the production Countryman and Mini Cooper S of its models outside Europe for Countryman High – will be imported the first time in its history as it in India as Completely Built-up Units commences the local production of (CBU). The Mini (Mini Cooper and Countryman at the BMW plant near Mini Cooper S) and Mini Convertible Chennai India. The new Mini local (Mini Cooper Convertible) will be production facility has been brought imported in India as Completely on stream just a year after the start Built-up Units (CBU) in petrol of MINI sales in India and will help variants. The ex-showroom prices of to meet the steadily increasing the Mini cars in India are as follows: demand. The locally produced Mini Countryman will be introduced in two diesel variants for the first time in India - Mini Cooper D Model Price Countryman and Mini Mini Cooper 26,60,000 Cooper D Countryman Mini Cooper S 29,90,000 High. A new petrol Mini Cooper Convertible 32,50,000 variant of Mini One Mini One Countryman 23,50,000 Countryman will also Mini Cooper D Countryman 25,60,000 be produced at BMW Mini Cooper D Countryman High 28,90,000 Plant Chennai.

Mini Cooper S Countryman 34,20,000 The other petrol Mini Cooper S Countryman High 37,50,000 variants of the Mini

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Motown india highlights

Automechanika Johannesburg to kick off in May’13

German exhibitors will again be flying the flag at the third Automechanika Johannesburg from May 8-11, 2013. With 616 exhibitors (145 South African, 471 International) this is an 11pc increase in exhibitors compared to the previous event. 15 German companies will present a cross section of products and services from areas that include automotive parts, motor vehicle accessories and the entire aftermarket. Among them are MWS Autochemie (motor vehicle fluids), Auger Autotechnik (commercial vehicle parts), Hans Oetiker, Flösser, ClimAir Plava Kunststoffe GmbH (wind deflectors), Reinz-Dichtungs GmbH (seals and gaskets), Spicer Gelenkwellenbau (drive shafts), Eurolub, Trucktec Automotive, together with their local partners - Alleuro, Bizol, CTP, Philips, Otto Nussbaum, Stafford Technologies and BBT Automotive Components.

On an average, motor vehicles in South Africa are 10.5 years old and spend most of their time in traffic jams. The country is looking to increase automobile production to 1.2 million vehicles by 2020.

14 / May 2013

Bosch Rexroth opens new plant at Sanand Bosch Rexroth has put a new plant into operation in Sanand, India, replacing the previously rented facilities and increasing the overall square footage at this location.

In order to be able to address the specific regional product and system requirements, the company is not only expanding production but also stepping up sales and development.

Around 550 associates work at Bosch Rexroth in Ahmedabad. Overall, the company is investing around 280 crore into the expansion of its presence in the region. Bosch Rexroth manufactures hydraulics components and systems at the site.

“Going beyond production, we have developed the Sanand plant more and more into a technology centre,” said Dr. Johannes T. Grobe, Managing Director of Bosch Rexroth in India. Based on the product platforms, engineers develop regional product variations here which meet the specific requirements of the local customers.

The hydraulic components and systems from the new plant are used in a wide variety of fields, including Machinery Applications and Engineering, Factory Automation, and Mobile Applications. The new

plant will have a total area of around 37,000sq metres.

Bosch Rexroth has been present in India for over 35 years and has continuously increased local added value there. Since 2007, the company has almost doubled its transaction volume. In total, Bosch Rexroth employs around 880 associates in India.

“With our strategy “local for local”, we are opening up additional market segments that we would not be able to reach from Germany. In the long run, this also ensures higher capacity utilization in Germany,” emphasises Dr. Wolfgang Horn, Senior Vice President Technical of the Industrial Applications business unit at Bosch Rexroth AG. In March 2013, the company expanded its presence in Fountain Inn in the US and doubled its production capacity there. In fall 2012, Bosch Rexroth put into operation new production facilities and offices as well as an R&D center in Wujin, China.

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Motown india highlights

Ashok Leyland ‘Dost’ completes 1 year of operations

Dost’, the 2.5T Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) from Ashok Leyland has completed one full year of successful operations clocking a sales volume of 34,917 numbers garnered from the 12 states it is presently sold in. Riding on this success, the company has bagged export orders for ‘Dost’ from the SAARC markets.

‘Dost’, which has a payload capacity of 1.25T, is available in three versions with the top-end version featuring airconditioning, power steering and a palette of four colours to choose from: White, Beige, Blue and Aqua Green. Ashok Leyland also offers Ready-to-Use Vehicles (RUVs) on the ‘Dost’ platform for various applications such as Refrigerated containers, Steel containers, ambulance, aluminium fixed side decks and service-at-site vehicles.

“We set out to create a vehicle to meet the requirements of an evolving LCV customer in India and we are deeply appreciative of the overwhelming customer response to ‘Dost’,” said Dr. V. Sumantran, Vice Chairman, Ashok Leyland.

16 / May 2013

Ashok Leyland rolls out SCR OBD-II compliant CV

Ashok Leyland, rolled out the country’s first On Board Diagnostic (OBD II) compliant vehicle powered by a BSIV engine and equipped with Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology. Ashok Leyland was the first OEM to receive the OBD-II certification for BS IV-compliant commercial vehicle engines in SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction), EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation) and CNG technologies. This is as per the legislation that came into effect from April 1st, 2013 on all BSIV commercial vehicles above 3.5 tonnes GVW. Speaking about the development, Vinod K. Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland noted, “This is a remarkable achievement of having completed the entire process of certification to final product roll out in record time and credit is due not

only to our team but to our suppliers as well who partnered us. With the introduction of stricter emission norms, there is a greater need for sophisticated emission control systems and technologies and OBD II will go a long way in improving the overall life and productivity of the vehicle and, at the end of the day, enhance our customers’ profitability.”

OBD detects failures that adversely affect emissions and illuminates a dashboard light known as the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) to warn the driver of faults. It aids diagnosis and repair of complex electronic engine controls, helps keep emissions low by early identification of controls that need repair, is a life-long solution for the vehicle while from an industry perspective, it encourages the design of durable emission control systems.

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Motown india highlights

Greaves Ustad for mini- tractor segment Greaves Farm Equipment Business, part of Greaves Cotton Limited, has launched its first ever, compact, mini-tractor, Greaves Ustad. Greaves Ustad has been introduced in the 11-12 HP range. An entry level tractor, the ‘Ustad’ will cater to a land holding size of 3-5 acres.

Greaves Cotton Ltd is one of India’s leading engineering companies, Designed primarily for farming operations, Greaves Ustad lends itself to multiple operations such as haulage, cultivator, seed drill, pesticide sprayer, rotavator etc. Greaves Ustad is fitted with an emission compliant, easy to service, economical and fuel-efficient Greaves G 600 W II engine with a low diesel consumption of 1 lit. /hr. The 4 stroke direct injection single cylinder engine offers a maximum torque of 32Nm. Greaves Ustad features forward - reverse with eight forward and two reverse gears, completely sealed water proof mechanical brakes and a pawl and ratchet type locking arrangement as a standard fitment. Ustad comes with a combination of synchromesh, constant and sliding mesh gear shifting with epicyclical planetary reduction gear that is suited for all agricultural operations and haulage. It has a minimum turning radius of 2.1 metre without brakes.

18 / May 2013

Apollo Tyres introduces 4G car tyres for India Apollo Tyres introduced three new passenger vehicle tyres for the Indian market at the Zaandvoort Circuit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. These 4th generation (4G) tyres from Apollo’s stable -- Aspire 4G, Alnac 4G and Amazer 4G -- are the most advanced range of high technology passenger vehicle tyres across segments for the new age Indian motorist.

Neeraj Kanwar, Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Apollo Tyres Ltd. noted, “These tyres are a result of cross geography collaboration between our R&D, Manufacturing and Sales & Marketing teams in India and Europe. In line with Apollo’s commitment towards customer’s safety, the R&D team has given extra attention to the safety aspect of these tyres. To keep up with the introduction of newer and bigger cars in India, we would be adding 10-12 new products in the passenger vehicle category in the next 2 years.”

In the last one year, the market share for Apollo Tyres in the replacement segment for passenger vehicle tyres has gone up from 13.5pc to 16pc. With the introduction of these new tyres, Apollo plans to increase its market share further.

The 4G range from Apollo has a minimalistic design to cater to superior handling in wet and dry

conditions; shorter braking distance and low noise. The wide outer shoulders with narrow intermediate grooves lead to better contact for dry handling. These tyres have reduced aquaplaning and enhanced grip in wet conditions. The centre rib which is optimised for stiffness, lends higher steering precision.

Apollo’s 4G range of tyres easily and precisely respond to any unexpected steering corrections, providing maximum driving safety.

The unique mix of raw materials ensures maximum traction and shorter braking distances on wet and dry surfaces. These tyres have been extensively tested at IDIADA, Spain and ATP Papenburg, Germany, with some excellent results.

Added Satish Sharma, Chief, India Operations, Apollo Tyres Ltd, “We are the largest producers of passenger vehicle tyres in India with a capacity of approx 35000 tyres per day. With the addition of three new passenger vehicle tyres to our portfolio, which will cater to cars starting from an Alto to an Audi A4, we are working towards gaining the leadership position in this category as well.”

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MOTOWN INDIA GREEN SPECIAL JUNE 2013

Automobiles, auto components, manufacturing processes and automotive technologies are today striving to emerge green and clean. Be a part of this Green Special which will encompass the latest on companies and their efforts in this direction.

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Motown india highlights

Top level appointments at Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies Faurecia has announced the appointment of Christophe Schmitt as Executive VicePresident, Faurecia Emissions Control Technologies from May 1, 2013. Jean-Marc Hannequin, who has held this post since 2002, will be retiring at the end of the year and is appointed Senior Advisor from May 1, 2013. Jean-Michel Renaudie is appointed Executive VicePresident, Faurecia Interior Systems from April 1, 2013, replacing Christophe Schmitt.

Christophe Schmitt has been Executive Vice-President, Faurecia Interior Systems since 2006, prior to which he was Vice-President, Mechanisms and Frames Business Group now integrated into Faurecia Automotive Seating. He has led the significant international growth of the Business Group, with in particular the acquisition of the Ford Saline business in North America in 2012.

He joined Sommer Allibert (subsequently Faurecia Interior Systems) in 1990 in the UK and has held a succession of posts of increasing responsibility in Germany and France. Jean Michel Renaudie has been deputy Executive Vice-President, Faurecia Interior Systems since September 2012.

20 / May 2013

Royal Enfield commences production at Oragadam facility

Royal Enfield has started commercial production from its new manufacturing facility at Oragadam, Tamil Nadu. Spread over 50 acres, the Oragadam plant starts with an installed production capacity of 150,000 units in the first phase. An initial investment of 150 crores has been made towards construction of this facility that will produce the full range of Royal Enfield motorcycles.

Rolling out the first motorcycle from the Oragadam facility, Siddhartha Lal, MD & CEO, Eicher Motors Ltd. said, “At Royal Enfield we have recorded a major milestone with this plant at Oragadam becoming operational. Royal Enfield has witnessed a huge surge in demand in the recent past, recording a growth of over 50pc for each of the last two years. We

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Motown india highlights

have been extremely successful in stretching the capacity of our existing 60 year old plant to record levels – achieving production of over 12,000 motorcycles in the month of March 2013. Yet the demand for our motorcycles has continued to outpace the supply. Therefore we have conceived of this new facility on a much larger tract of land and created a master-plan that can take the eventual production here to over 500,000 per year. With the speedy execution of the first phase of the plan, we have revised our production target upwards in 2013 – to 175,000 motorcycles from both plants. However, even as we start commercial production, we have already begun working on the second phase of expansion at Oragadam, which will further increase the production capacity to 250,000 motorcycles in 2014.

With this new facility, we now have the ability to scale our production quantity quickly in response to market demand.”

“This new plant has been benchmarked to achieve the highest level of quality and productivity. We have re-tooled many of the parts that make up our motorcycles – so that they are of exacting accuracy and finish. The substrate quality of the sheet metal parts, for example, is now at par with the best in the world; when these parts undergo the world-leading CED and paint process here at Oragadam – they will have a surface finish and life of the highest quality”, he further added.

Talking about Royal Enfield’s future plans Siddhartha Lal said, “The ability to increase capacity fast and superior quality of motorcycles is a crucial step for Royal Enfield towards meeting our global

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ambitions. While we are adding new models and new dealerships in the Indian market which is fuelling our growth, we are also working on building our presence globally.

Higher investments into brand and distribution, as well as new products that are very appealing to international markets are going to be key for us to achieve global leadership in the mid-size motorcycle category.”

The construction at the plant commenced in February 2012 and with civil work continuing around the clock, it was completed in a time of 11 months. In addition to increasing capacity, the Oragadam plant has been designed to optimise cost of production through relevant automation while retaining the human craftsmanship that is distinct to the iconic Royal Enfield motorcycles. Towards this, an absolutely path breaking new CED paint shop with a painting capacity of 600 motorcycles per day has been installed in the plant. Further, to ensure consistency and less wastage, a robotic painting system and powder coating system have also been added. At the same time, processes such as the legendary pin-striping continue to be done through craftsmen who lend that special human touch to each motorcycle. The vehicle assembly line at Oragadam comes with several features such as ergonomic assembly work stations, torque controlled tools with feedback device and a capacity of producing one motorcycle a minute, or over 800 per day on two shifts.

Effective controls and process, right from material handling to review mechanisms, have been created on the backbone of a modern and strong IT infrastructure.

Nissan India rejigs top management Nissan India has announced the appointment of Kenichiro Yomura as President of Nissan’s India operations. Yomura – who will report to Toru Hasegawa, Corporate Vice President for Africa, Middle East and India - will concurrently hold the position of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer for Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd and will be based at the company’s Chennai headquarters.

The appointment marks a significant change in Nissan’s senior management structure in India as Yomura will hold responsibility for Manufacturing, Research & Development and Joint Venture businesses.

This will accelerate strategic decision making and streamline operational efficiency to help achieve the company’s objective of securing 10pc market share in 2016.

In this expanded role, Yomura will be responsible for developing strategies to maximize Nissan’s business performance, managing product introduction and significantly increasing the presence and accessibility of the Nissan brand through continuing network expansion.

Yomura’s experience spans over three decades in the automobile industry. His recent role was as General Manager overseeing Nissan’s operations in the Middle East region.

May 2013 / 21

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Tata Motors launches Prima trucks in Sri Lanka Tata Motors, along with its partner Diesel and Motor Engineering, has launched Prima range of commercial vehicles in Sri Lanka. The models introduced in Sri Lanka are Prima 4023 LX (4X2), Prima 4923 LX (6X4), Prima 4028 (4X2), Prima 4938 (6X4), Prima 4038 (4X2) and Prima 4928 (6X4).

Tata Motors has stated that the six models being introduced are primarily targeted at the container movement, cement transportation and gas logistics sectors. Tata Prima has been jointly developed by Tata Motors and its two units—Tata Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Co., South Korea, and Tata Motors European Technical Centre Plc., UK. Tata Motors Commercial Vehicles Business Unit executive director Ravindra Pisharody said the revamped infrastructure in Sri Lanka makes it possible for transporters to gain the benefit of the Tata Prima trucks with higher power, speed and carrying capacity.“ This new range from Tata Motors will meet the changing needs in the Sri Lankan market,” Pisharody added.

22 / May 2013

BMW Motorrad and TVS Motor Company join hands BMW Motorrad has announced that they will be entering the sub 500cc segment. A long term cooperation agreement has been signed between BMW Motorrad and TVS Motor Company.

The agreement aims at the joint development and production of motorcycles by the two companies in the segment below 500cc.

Present at the press conference, Stephan Schaller, President BMW Motorrad, stated,” in view of changing motorcycle markets, demographics and increasing environmental demands we are expanding our product range so as to tap into fresh growth potential.”

BMW product range features engine upwards of 650 cubic centimeters and thus becomes difficult to create smaller engines for the German major. This is where technical knowhow of the TVS

Motor Company steps in.

“We intend to leverage each other’s strengths to deliver a new series of products offering cutting edge technology for our customers”, said Venu Shrinivasan, Chairman, TVS Motor Company. TVS is one of the largest two wheeler manufacturers in the country and has a wide range if offerings.

Picture for representation purpose only

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Fiat to distribute its cars independently in India

Fiat Group Automobiles India Private Limited (FGAIPL), the fully owned subsidiary of Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A., Italy has announced the completion of the dissolution with Tata Motors for the distribution arrangement of FIAT vehicles in India. FGAIPL will now independently control all commercial activities which includes marketing, sales, distribution and after sales services of Fiat vehicles in India. With the establishment of FGAIPL, the independent dealership network and workshops have been earmarked for serving Fiat vehicles in prime locations across major cities in India.

Speaking on the development, Enrico Atanasio, Director - FGAIPL, noted, “The objective behind establishing a National Sales Company (NSC) in FGAIPL is to consolidate our position as a key

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automobile player in the Indian car market. We have identified key personnel and roped them in for important leadership roles in order to accelerate our growth plans.

Our long term product strategy is in place and which puts us in a strong position to capture market share in one of the most important automobile markets in the world. I am fairly confident that we can build on this early momentum and align all our activities to achieve our short term and long term objectives.”

FGAIPL has also initiated their latest integrated marketing campaign, “Make the Move”, with the objective of engaging the consumers through multiple touch points. The brand will engage with the incumbent and prospective customers by communicating the journey of the Fiat brand in India.

TKM inks MoU with M&M Financial Services

Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt. Ltd. has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. to extend auto retail finance to their prospective customers.

Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd. will be one of the preferred financiers for the entire range of vehicles sold by Toyota Kirloskar Motor Private Limited (TKM). The MoU was signed by Rajnish Agarwal – Vice President Operations, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited and Sailesh Shetty, Vice President, Sales & Dealer Development, Toyota Kirloskar Motor.

Commenting on this occasion, Rajnish Agarwal – Vice President Operations, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services said, “Our wide network of 640+ offices and customer presence in more than 150,000 villages across India, gives us an edge in reaching out to the deepest parts of the country. We have a customer centric approach and have developed loan products suitable for all profiles of customers. This ability also will create strong synergies.”

May 2013 / 23

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Mercedes-Benz India rolls out AMG Driving academy

Mercedes-Benz India flagged of the second level of its AMG Driving Academy, the Advanced Training, at the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida. During the basic training programme the drivers are taught the techniques of reacting safely and confidently at the wheel of the high performing Mercedes-Benz AMG vehicles under extreme conditions. Taking the perfection of driving high performance cars to the next level, the participants of the Advanced Training programme will be trained by expert drivers from AMG Driving Academy, Germany, to perfect the challenging cornering techniques and learn how to gain better control of the performance vehicles on the world class race track.

Mercedes-Benz Performance Drive includes the AMG Driving Academy, StarDrive Experience, Track Day Experience, International Driving Experience, Star Off-Road Experience, Young Star Drivers Programme. These provide an all-round training to the motoring enthusiasts and give them a real time feel of the world of motorsports.

24 / May 2013

World premiere of the new generation Unimog and Econic

Mercedes-Benz is now continuing its Euro VI product offensive with the presentation of the new generation of unique vehicle concepts in Wörth: the Unimog all-terrain vehicle, the Unimog implement carrier, and the Econic.. As a result, MercedesBenz Trucks and Special Trucks are currently the only manufacturers in Europe to offer Euro VI-compliant products in all categories of the light, medium, and heavy-duty segments, as well as in the specialpurpose vehicle sector. The brand has achieved comprehensive compliance nine months before the new emissions standard goes into effect, thus underscoring its leading role as a supplier of environmentally friendly automotive technology.

In addition to new engines for all model series, the Unimog all-terrain vehicle boasts a revamped mid-

engine concept, and the Unimog implement carrier driveline features a new seamless change between the infinitely variable speed hydrostatic drive and mechanical drive providing all-round visibility, and new hydraulic systems for implements and performance that make the vehicle significantly more efficient to use.

“In a wide variety of applications, the three new model series impressively demonstrate the leading role that the Unimog and the Econic play in innovation,” says Yaris Pürsün, Head of Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks. “We’re convinced that the new vehicles will set standards and substantially contribute to the business success of existing and future customers.”

Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks did everything it could to build on the

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proven model series’ success and further strengthen its pioneering role in the area of environmentally friendly trucks. To do this, the brand invested around €135 million in three completely new and unique vehicle concepts for its Euro VIcompliant product range. The new product lineup introduces the new BlueEfficiency Power medium-duty engine generation in special trucks, now that it has been successfully

that pay off for the customer.

From the initial draft stage to job number 1, the new-generation Unimog and Econic have been completely made in Wörth. The development department of Mercedes-Benz Special Trucks created the vehicles all on its own while at the same time benefiting from the proximity of the mass production operations for Mercedes-Benz trucks. The joint

Mercedes-Benz new heads for Marketing and Sales functions Mercedes-Benz India announced that Boris Fitz will take over as Head of Sales for the company.

Santosh Iyer is designated as the Head of Marketing at MercedesBenz India. The responsibilities will be effective from May 1, 2013.

The announcement comes close on the heels of Debashis Mitra, Director Sales and Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India moving on from the company to pursue better prospects.

Hero MotoCorp announces 5-year warranty on two-wheelers installed in regular Mercedes-Benz trucks. The four and six-cylinder engines have outputs ranging from 156bhp to 354bhp. The state-ofthe-art engines combine low fuel consumption with extremely clean exhausts. They make the Unimog more efficient overall, despite the extensive design changes that were implemented to ensure compliance with Euro VI. In the Econic, the engines even reduce fuel consumption by up to four percent.

In addition to being extremely reliable, the new special trucks boast a long service life and long maintenance intervals — features

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use of the production processes in Wörth ensures extremely efficient assembly operations and a high level of quality assurance. The vehicle concepts of the special trucks are based on the modular principle used for the Actros, Antos, Arocs, and Atego series. For example, the Econic incorporates many components from the new Actros, including the chassis, the electronics architecture, and certain control elements. The broad range of new products was made possible by the close interlinking of seriesproduction operations and the special truck manufacturing facility.

Hero MotoCorp Ltd has announced the country’s firstever warranty of 5 years on all its two-wheelers (5 years or 70,000km on motorcycles, whichever is earlier and 5 years or 50,000km on scooters, whichever is earlier). Anil Dua, Sr. Vice President (Marketing and Sales), Hero MotoCorp said, “Staying true to our splendid legacy, all Hero two-wheelers will now have a 5-year warranty.

Hero MotoCorp is the first manufacturer in the country to offer this benefit.”

May 2013 / 25

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Mahindra Reva and Vodafone announce partnership Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., and Vodafone Business Services (VBS), the enterprise arm of Vodafone India Ltd., have announced a strategic technology partnership. This partnership will enable Vodafone to provide Machine-to-Machine (m2m) communication services to power the recently launched electric vehicle, Mahindra e2o.

The e2o which has just been launched in India is a truly ‘connected car’ and is among a select few in the world to support telematics.

Using their smart phones or any internet connected computer, e2o owners can, with Vodafone’s connectivity, access the following services: • Know the state of charge in the battery of their car and how far they can travel with the available charge • Remotely control its airconditioning and set schedules to pre-heat or pre-cool the car before they use it • Lock or unlock the car doors • Find the nearest charging stations • Receive alerts on various events with the car such as a disruption in charging due to power cuts, safety related reminders such as a door being left unlocked or a parking brake not applied.

26 / May 2013

VW new Parts and Components Business Unit for exports

Volkswagen India Private Limited recently inaugurated Parts and Components Business Unit at the Volkswagen Pune Plant. As a part of its growth strategy, Volkswagen India Private Limited will now export parts and components of Volkswagen Vento and in the near future of Volkswagen Polo to Malaysia where the cars will be assembled for the local market.

Volkswagen India Private Limited has been exporting cars from its Pune Plant since last year as

fully built units to markets such as South Africa, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia and left hand drive version of Volkswagen Vento to the Middle East Countries. With the inauguration of the Parts and Components Business Unit, the company marks the next step in its export business. The Parts and Components Business also supports the growth strategy of Volkswagen AG in the South East Asian region.

Through the Parts and Components Business Unit,

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‘Think Blue.

Factory.’ initiatives for by VW’s Pune plant

Volkswagen India will export body parts and assembly parts of Volkswagen Vento and Volkswagen Polo to Malaysia where they will be assembled at the DRB Hicom Plant for the domestic market.

The Indian export parts contribute to approximately 70pc of the car and will be manufactured and packaged at the Pune Plant. The investment in developing the Parts and Components Business Unit runs at approximately 56 crores (8 million Euro). About 215 new jobs will be created in the Parts and Components Business Unit at Volkswagen and its suppliers.

The unit was inaugurated in the presence of Dr. Hubert Waltl, Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand with the responsibility for ‘Production and Logistics’, Mahesh Kodumudi, President and Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited and Andreas Lauenroth, Executive Director Technical, Volkswagen India Private Limited.

Dr. Hubert Waltl congratulated Volkswagen India and said, “Malaysia is a key market for Volkswagen in

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South East Asia region. Volkswagen Pune Plant has the quality competence and perfectly fulfils the requirements to successfully export parts and components to Malaysia.

The German engineering with highest quality made by Volkswagen in India - will be the unit’s key to success.”

“The Parts and Components Business Unit is the next important strategic step for us to grow beyond the domestic market and contribute towards the growth strategy of Volkswagen AG in South East Asia region”, added Mahesh Kodumudi.

“For our production plant, this is the next level of growth. Export is a future orientated business unit and it is our task to ensure that we fulfil the demand of the Malaysian market.

It is a challenge for both, the production as well as the logistics departments. Therefore, we will create about 215 new jobs in both the divisions for the required task.

Apart from the Malaysian market, if there is a demand from any other region for parts and components, we are on the pole position to support”, added Andreas Lauenroth.

Volkswagen India Private Limited announced the achievements of the “Think Blue. Factory.” initiatives at its Pune plant in Chakan which aims at environmental sustainability - a global target set by Volkswagen. The project, which was globally announced in 2011 and implemented in Pune Plant from 2012, focuses on reducing the environmental impact of all Volkswagen plants across the world by 25pc by 2018 based on 2010 values. This applies especially to energy consumption, water consumption, waste generation, air-borne emissions including carbon dioxide emissions.

Mahesh Kodumudi, President & Managing Director, Volkswagen India Private Limited, said, “The strategic goal for the Volkswagen Group is the economic and environmental leadership in the global automotive industry by 2018.

The ‘Think Blue. Factory.’ initiatives are a key to achieving the goals. With the ‘Think Blue.

Factory.’ initiatives we aim to reduce the impact on the environment by 25pc by 2018.”

May 2013 / 27

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Mahindra Verito Vibe to vibe with the youngsters The sub-4 metre race continues in India with Mahindra & Mahindra announcing that its new sub 4 metre Verito will be named the Verito Vibe. The Verito Vibe is expected to be launched in May 2013. The car, which was originally the Renault Logan when Mahindra and Renault were in good terms, metamorphosed into the Verito as Mahindra bought the car and its technology lock, stock and barrel from Renault.

The Vibe will be the second car offering from the Mahindra stable, after the Verito and the first in the sub-4 metre category.

The Verito Vibe is indigenously designed and developed by M&M and is packaged in a sub4 metre length on the Verito platform. The Verito Vibe will be powered by a 1.5 Litre dCi Diesel Engine. The Verito Vibe will sport some first in class styling elements in this younger and sportier avatar. Mahindra has decided on the name Vibe for its newest offering, with the aim of conveying a distinctive youthful and vibrant imagery.

Vibe targets the socially aware, young consumer of today.

Speaking on the ‘Verito Vibe’, Pravin Shah, Chief Executive, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, noted “Customer centric innovation has always been at the heart of any product development at the Mahindra Group.“

28 / May 2013

JCB India rolls out 50,000th engine at Ballabgarh JCB India Ltd. has rolled out its 50,000th JCB engine at its Ballabgarh facility in India.

In 2011, JCB had launched its first domestically built BSIII, 16 valve diesel engine which is high in fuel efficiency, low in maintenance cost and provides the best return of investment to its esteemed customers.

Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO, JCB India Ltd. noted, “It’s a moment of great pride for the JCB India Team to become the first construction equipment manufacturer in India to roll out 50,000 engines in just two years.

These world class engines are a testimony to the immense hard work put in by JCB teams from the UK and India working together. India plays a vital role in JCB’s global expansion plans and this development marks another step towards JCB’s growth in India.”

JCB engine ecoMAX has over 93pc indigenisation by value; it is the first engine in India that has been developed exclusively for off-highway applications and available with the range, they are naturally aspirated, turbocharged and common rail. The 4.8 naturally aspirated engine is specifically

developed and designed for India.

Currently, JCB ecoMAX engine is fitted into backhoe loaders 3dx (56 kw), 3dx super (68 kw), 4dx (68 kw), 3dx xtra (63 kw), excavators js 120 (63 kw), js210 wheel loaders 430zx (97 kw), compactors vm115 (85 kw), vmt860 (56 kw), vm115e (93 kw).

Sondhi added, “JCB engine ecoMAX is known for its best in class fuel efficiency. At present, JCB’s ecoMAX engine is used to power JCB’s world beating range of Backhoe Loaders, Wheeled Loaders, Compaction Equipment and part of its Excavator range.”

JCB has also recently announced a proposed investment of 500 crore at their upcoming 4th facility in Jaipur. JCB India holds a leading position in India and it is India’s largest manufacturer of construction equipment.

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BorgWarner opens new production facility in Brazil BorgWarner officially opened its new production facility and engineering centre in Itatiba City, Brazil, recently.

The new campus will produce several environmentally friendly technologies for passenger cars and commercial vehicles such as turbochargers, viscous fans and fan drives, engine timing systems and emissions technologies. At 204,500 sq ft, BorgWarner’s new facilities are located 80 km northwest of São Paulo and are twice as big as its former facility in Campinas. “With our new production facility and engineering centre in Itatiba City, we are laying the foundation for expanding our excellent position as a leading supplier of advanced powertrain technologies in the rapidly growing South American market,” said James Verrier, President and Chief Executive Officer, BorgWarner.

“New legislation is driving automakers to improve fuel economy and reduce emissions.

Consumers are demanding performance and enhanced drivability. BorgWarner’s advanced technologies satisfy all of these needs with local production and engineering capabilities,” he added. Driven by growing demand for BorgWarner’s fuel-efficient technologies, the new campus was built in only 18 months.

Relocation of production capacity from Campinas to Itatiba City took place without any interruption in operations. Itatiba City generates great interest with multinational companies because of its strategic

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location close to major development regions and the capital of the federal state, São Paolo. With a total area of nearly 100,000 square meters, the environmentally friendly campus offers additional space for future expansion and is expected to receive LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification soon. In addition, the new campus includes an engineering centre with four engine test stands for developing and introducing new technologies to provide local customers with the latest powertrain technologies.

Meanwhile, during a ceremony held in Detroit, BorgWarner received a 2013 Automotive News PACE Innovation Partnership Award for its collaboration with BMW on the first regulated three-stage (R3S) turbocharging system for diesel engines. The innovative technology achieves a V8’s powerful output with the fuel economy of an inline-6 engine. BorgWarner worked closely with BMW to develop the threestage technology, which debuted on the BMW M Performance diesel engine, the most powerful 6-cylinder in-line diesel engine in the world.

BorgWarner’s innovation also earned a 2013 Automotive News PACE Award, the company’s seventh award in nine years. “

Hyundai reveals an egg shaped concept for future mobility

Hyundai Motor Company has revealed unique concepts for single-person future mobility.

This single-person concept has been designed for use in congested cities across the globe. Prototypes have been created by engineers working at the company’s research and development (R&D) centre in Korea for an internal contest called the ‘IDEA festival’.

The engineers in Hyundai submit their ideas which get evaluated. This evaluation is based on creativity, technology, fun and relevance to the theme.

Key features of E4U: The E4U has an egg-shaped, streamlined body and is a new concept of future mobility for one person The name E4U embraces 4 Es; Egg, Evolution, Electricity and Eco-friendliness It is designed to be driven at low speeds on narrow roads in urban areas

May 2013 / 29

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Bajaj Auto shows its 4-wheel quadricycle, once more

Bajaj Auto says it is keen to bring in the 4-wheeler code named RE60 in the current financial year, provided all clearances are met. The vehicle was unveiled in the 2012 Auto Expo in New Delhi. Says R.C. Maheshwari, President Commercial Vehicles, Bajaj Auto, “It is indeed gratifying that the Government of India has given an in-principle approval for the creation of a new class of 4 wheelers – the Quadricycles”.

The vehicle boasts of Ultra low emissions – less than 100 gms of CO2 per km and high fuel efficiency of 35+ kmpl.

The company has achieved this as a result of limited the kerb weight to 450kgs by the use of a metal-polymer hybrid structure.

The engineers had used a small, water-cooled, 4 valve, DTSi engine with a closed loop fuel injection system. With a kerb weight of 450 kgs, the vehicle achieves a maximum speed of 70 kmph, with a turning circle radius 3.5 meters.

30 / May 2013

Kawasaki Ninja 300 launched for 3.5 lakh

Bajaj Auto has launched the latest Kawasaki Ninja 300, which is expected to replace the current Ninja 250R. The high-performance motorcycle by the Japanese bikemaker will be available in two colours: Pearl Stardust and Lime Green. The premium motorcycle, which will be available across Bajaj Auto’s 70-odd Probiking stores across the country, is priced at 3.5 lakh, ex-showroom Delhi. Like the 250R, the Ninja 300 will also be following the CKD route, with its kits being imported from Thailand and assembled at the Indian automaker’s Chakan facility in Pune. It will now be locking horns with CBR 250R, Hyosung GT250R and the to-belaunched Suzuki Inazuma.

The Ninja 300 is powered by a 296cc liquid-cooled parallel twin four stroke engine that develops a peak power of 39bhp delivered at 11,000rpm while peak torque is rated at 27Nm at 10,000rpm. The fuel-injected engine, which runs on

a DOHC/8 valve layout, is mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox via a slipper clutch. The front suspension is a telescopic fork while the rear suspension adopts a 5 way adjustable mono shock. Even though its ABS version is available in many international markets, it will not be available here in the near term.

Commenting on the launch, Rajiv Bajaj, MD, Bajaj Auto said, “We conceived Bajaj Probiking eight years back with the objective of making it the automatic destination for bike enthusiasts looking for sportsbikes.

In addition to the KTM range the Kawasaki Ninja 300 is a step further in realising that objective.”

Yuji Horiuchi, of India Kawasaki Motors added, “The Kawasaki Ninja 250R has been a great success in India with more than 3000 bikes sold till date. With a product like Ninja 300 and Bajaj Probiking’s wide and exclusive network the Kawasaki brand will continue to grow in India.”

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Mercedes AMG Petronas and Tata Communications link up

Tata Communications has entered into a partnership with Mercedes AMG Petronas which will see the delivery of trackside connectivity for the team at all Formula One race locations using the Tata Communications global network.

With the new partnership, Tata Communications becomes the ‘Official Managed Connectivity Supplier’ to the team.

Tata Communications, a leading global provider of ‘a new world of communications’, will work closely with Mercedes AMG Petronas to deliver high-speed, high quality and secure trackside connectivity, enabling the team to transfer vital real-time data from the Silver Arrow cars at any Grand Prix location to its headquarters in the UK, three times faster than at present. The improved trackside connectivity will enable the team to react more quickly to developments at the track and help

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to increase car performance.

Part of the worldwide Tata group, Tata Communications owns and maintains a complete ring of cables around the world including the world’s first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring to circle the globe. The Tata Communications global network comprises over 500,000km of subsea cable and over 200,000km of terrestrial network fibre, allowing a data transfer capacity of one terabit per second, high bandwidth availability and seamless scalability.In February 2012, Tata Communications announced a multi-year technology service and marketing agreement with Formula One Management to deliver world-class connectivity to all Formula One race locations over its world-first wholly-owned subsea fibre ring. It also provides global hosting and content delivery services to the official Formula One website Formula1.com

Ford Expands 3-Wet Paint Capacity by 50pc in 2013 Ford Motor Company is expanding its industry leading 3-Wet paint capacity by 50pc this year, adding the environmentally friendly paint process to four more plants on three continents. The actions will reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 30pc at those facilities.

Ford India’s Chennai plant is first Ford car plant in the world – and Ford is the only manufacturer in India – to use new 3-Wet High-Solids paint technology. Automated robots apply all three coats – primer, base coat and clear coat – one on top of another before oven curing. The 3-Wet process derives its name because three layers of paint are applied one after the other before the prior coats have been cured.

The process eliminates standalone primer application and a dedicated oven required in the conventional process that was used before. Advanced chemical composition of 3-Wet paint materials allows for the three layers of paint -- primer, base coat, and clear coat – to be applied while each layer is still wet without baking in between.

The 3-Wet technology allows Ford to maintain top quality characteristics that customers demand, including long-term durability and chip and scratch resistance.

May 2013 / 31

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Michelin brings green guides to India

Tyre major Michelin has announced the launch of their flagship Green Guide series in India. The launch of the Chennai and Tamil Nadu Green Guide edition is a first in the series, encouraging travelers from across the world to explore the rich heritage and culture of diverse India. The first Michelin Green Guide on Chennai &Tamil Nadu offers detailed tips and local information that helps visitors to become immersed in this region. The book gives details of the people, the history, culinary traditions, cultural conducts and many other authentic experiences.

“At Michelin, our core mission is to enhance mobility around the world not only through innovative Michelin tyres, but also through our flagship mobility assets such as the Green Guide. We are excited to bring our Green Guides to India, starting with Tamil Nadu & Chennai editions. With this launch, we aim to promote and improvetravel experience in Tamil Nadu by making it safer and more enjoyable for travelers from all over India and also from overseas”, said Prashant Prabhu, President, Michelin Group Africa, India and Middle East.

32 / May 2013

An affordable Honda Dream Neo for `43,150/-

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) is on a dream launch spree.

And it seems that its big dreams are confined to the mass market in India. After the popular Dream Yuga, the Japanese auto giant has launched a new motorcycle Dream Neo in the mass market commuter segment. The motorcycle is price at 43,150. This makes the Dream Neo the cheapest two-wheeler from the HMSI stable. The Dream Neo motorcycle is powered by a 110cc engine and the company claims that it will give a mileage of 74kmpl of petrol.

HMSI President and CEO Keita Muramatsu told newspersons that the Dream Neo is the company’s “Big leap” towards consolidating its position in the Indian commuter segment.

Among HMSI’s other affordable two-wheelers currently available are 110cc scooter ‘Dio’ ( 44,718 ex showroom Delhi and Dream Yuga with 110cc engine (cost 45,101 exshowroom, Delhi) “Dream Neo is Honda’s next big leap towards creating deep inroads into the Indian commuter segment,” here.

On the back of its new products and network expansion, HMSI aims to grow over 150pc in the 100-110 cc motorcycle segment, he added.

“Overall, we are confident of customer demand for Honda twowheelers and eye 43pc growth with 39.3 lakh units sold in FY’14,” Muramatsu said.

HMSI is expanding its sales outlets to about 2,500 by the end of this fiscal from 1,950 outlets in FY’13.

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Bearing Special

Automotive Bearings Industry poised for phenomenal growth in India

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May 2013 / 33

Bearing Special Report: Avishek Banerjee

A

industry. It is no wonder that the world’s second largest automobile industry has seen a breakneck space in the production of bearings. The manufacturing operations began long ago in the late 40s, with the production of small and standard bearings. And now, there are 20 large and medium sector enterprises which together churn out close to 1.7 billion bearings every year. The

industry is growing at a CAGR of nearly 8-10pc for the last few fiscals as there are multiple models in every vehicle segment entering the market. Even though there has been some sort of soft landing when it comes to vehicle uptake, the overall automotive industry has shown a positive growth rate since 2006.

The Indian bearing market has been growing at the same pace

Picture courtesy NBC Bearings

s the Indian automotive industry is getting supperattractive on the global map, the component suppliers are reaping the harvest. One such industry among them that witnessed a phenomenal growth in the last few years is the country’s bearings

34 / May 2013

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Bearing Special as the Chinese market and now accounts for about 4pc of the world bearing market (worth US$ 56 billion) and is estimated at US$2.2 billion ( 11,500 crore). The automobile industry is the largest growth driver for the OEM market as it accounts for almost 45pc of total bearing market at 5,175 crore. This market is characterised by requirements of high quality, stringent delivery norms and lower margins. The engineering sector, which accounts for 28pc (at 3,220

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Engineering Company Ltd. (AEC), ABC Bearings Ltd. (incorporated as Antifriction Bearings Corporation, in 2002 the company name was changed to ABC Bearings Ltd.), Tata Bearings, SKF Bearings (founded globally as Aktiebolaget Svenska Kullagerfabriken), the Timken company and FAG Bearings India Ltd. (Since 1905 the FAG brand is registered with the patent office in Berlin. The registered trademark FAG, which stands for Fischers AktienGesellschaft, is protected in over 100 countries today. INA, FAG and LuK make up the “Schaeffler Group”).

Other bearing majors include NTN Bearing India Pvt Ltd. (subsidiary of NTN Corporation of Japan), ZKL India (Indian Associate of the internationally acclaimed ZKL Group of Czech Republic), EBC India (part of European Bearing Corporation based in Russia) and GGB Bearings have set up manufacturing based in India, to cater to local demand and also export to other markets.

Generally, bearings have been standardised internationally i.e. the boundary dimensions of the product have been laid down.

Given below is the tabular representation of the distribution of bearings used in the automotive industry with their contribution in percentage.

crore) of total share, holds the second growth driver.

Further, in the automotive bearings market, the organised segment manufacturers cater to 50pc of the demand. While overseas players have set up their manufacturing footprint here, the domestic ones have licensed the technology from internationally renowned manufacturers. About 15pc of the production is met by semi-organised and unorganised players, and the remaining 35pc of demand is fulfilled through imports.

Out of the total revenues in the automotive segment, 60pc of the revenues are contributed by the OEMs and the remaining 40pc is by the demand from the aftermarket.

Some small and medium enterprises do make some units in small numbers, but are not in tune with global standards. They produce bearings from imported components by assembling them.

The key players in the organised market consist of numerous domestic and international manufacturers like National Engineering Industries (NEI—also referred to as NBC Bearings), NRB Bearings (incorporated as Needle Roller Bearing Company, later the company name was changed to NRB Bearings Ltd.), Austin

Bearing Type

Share (%)

OD range (mm)

Ball Bearing

54

<200

Taper Roller

30

<280

Cylindrical roller

7

<200

Needle roller

6

<80

Spherical roller

3

<300

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Bearing Special and around 5pc to the industrial market.

Current challenges

Four Row Taper Roller

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Presently Indian bearings market is quite bullish with excellent growth prospects, thanks to the enormous grow in the automobile sector giving rise to demand for bearings.

Most of the major manufacturers have got their capacities booked till 2014. Understandably, companies are looking for alternate sources for bearing supplies. This offers a huge opportunity for more and more international brands exploring India as manufacturing base. The market is hot, in the automotive industry, more than 30 lakh vehicles are coming every year.

Every vehicle requires bearings.

When these vehicles start requiring maintenance after five years, there is again a demand for bearings.

In the automotive sector the requirement for bearings will never get exhausted,â&#x20AC;? revealed industry specialist Ajay K. Gupta, who is also the Managing Director of Kamtech Associates Private Limited.

Bearings for the automobile OE market that includes two and three wheelers account for slightly more than 30pc of the total demand.

36 / May 2013

Industrial OE segment accounts for almost 40pc of demand and includes manufacturers of light and heavy industrial machines and equipment as well as off-highway and railway vehicles. Sales through distributors (industrial distribution and the independent vehicle aftermarket) make up another 30pc of bearing demand, of which around 25pc is related to the vehicle service market

Like other industries in the Indian component space, the domestic bearing industry too is not shorn of challenges. Even though the locally made bearings are cheaper and competitively priced from imported bearings, they are more expensive than ones that are shipped in from China. This is primarily because the Chinese government gives 15pc subsidy on its export. As a result, the made-in-China bearings are about 50pc less in price than the price of what Indian made bearings manufactured locally.

Further compounding the woes of the domestic players is the increase in prices owing to high input costs like steel, etc. Another challenge cropping up for domestic manufacturers is the longer lifespan of direct market products due to improved technology, improved fuel quality, and better maintenance of the vehicles. As a result, the

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Bearing Special replacement rate for vehicles has come down, which in turn has led to slower growth in the aftermarket demand.

However, the biggest challenge that is giving sleepless nights not only to the global bearing manufacturers but also to the Indian manufacturers is the rampancy of piracy.

“Branded auto component aftermarket products face a significant challenge from the spurious / substandard parts sold in their names. This not only eats away their market but also adversely impacts their growth prospects.

ACMA has taken several initiatives including the ‘Asli Naqli’ campaign to spread awareness as also curb counterfeiting in the aftermarket in India,” said Gupta.

As the global vehiclemakers look for precision, quality and spontaneity, the bearing plants in India are gradually getting automated. Unlike earlier, the production is more of assembly.

Gupta also highlighted the fact that Indian automotive bearings manufacturers have enough business in hand and therefore no-one seems to be diversifying into new industries. There is enough scope for the Indian bearing industry and most of them are working at their full capacities, he added.

The automotive bearings market, particularly the OEM vertical, is totally organised. However, the aftermarkets are still unorganised to the extent of 45pc of the total market. The replacement market accounts for 40pc of total demand for bearing industry. There has

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been a single digit growth in the non-direct space for a number of segments like LCVs, MUVs, cars, tractors and construction equipment.

Most of the manufacturers are expecting sustained growth of 1520pc in the aftermarket owing to the rising density of two-wheelers, passenger cars and utility vehicles.

Many have acknowledged that the margins in this market are relatively higher as compared to OEM market

Exports More than two billion bearings are sold annually in India, including big, medium and small. At this juncture, the domestic market produces 85pc of the automotive sector bearings and the rest are imported. Although the development of India’s ball and roller bearing industry is gaining prominence, only 14-15pc of the bearings (out of the 2 billion) are exported annually to Europe, USA and the Middle East. Mostly ball and cylindrical roller bearings for

industrial applications are reexported. Bearing components are sourced from India and are subsequently exported to Germany and Sweden where SKF and Schaeffler (Formerly FAG) have manufacturing plants. However, India imports more bearings than it exports.

Future Trends As India becomes one of the key manufacturing hubs of global OEMs, the number of tier-I auto component firms will invest more on design and development of precision bearings which are not made here currently. In addition to that, the manufacturers are deploying a sizeable sum on research to develop better technologies, which increases the life of bearings. Bearings manufacturers have affirmed that there will be a recurring demand for bearings in the OE segment along with the unprecedented growth in the aftermarket vertical.

May 2013 / 37

Bearing Special

Leading players in the bearing industry National Engineering Industries Limited (NEI) NBC Bearings is the brand of National Engineering Industries

38 / May 2013

Limited (NEI), a part of the CK Birla group, which manufactures a wide range of bearings for the automotive, industrial and railways markets. NEI manufactures bearings in about 1,000 different sizes. The

company has three manufacturing facilities located at Jaipur, Newai and Manesar .The company will be investing 500 crore for expansion in existing facilities and the setting up of a fourth plant in Gujarat. It

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Bearing Special is the fastest growing bearings manufacturer providing its products to all the leading companies in India and abroad. In addition, the company exports bearings to more than 21 countries including OEMs in Latin America, Turkey, Europe and USA. NBCâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current capacity is 100 million bearings annually,

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expandable to 110 million across its three plants. Its plant manufactures ball bearings, tapered roller bearings, cylinder roller bearings, railway bearings and large diameter special bearings. The NBC brand commands a market share of 26pc in the domestic market. Nearly 65pc of its sales are catered to the automotive segment, 30pc to railways and remaining to the industrial segment.

In the automotive domain itself, approximately 70pc of NEIâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sales are to original equipment manufacturers and 30pc into the replacement market.

NEI aims to double the production capacity in next seven years and is also considering major acquisitions in Eastern Europe, Germany and Spain. NEI uses a heat treatment machine (furnace) from Chugairo, Japan. The grinding technology is

sourced from Izumi of Japan, Nova of Italy, LMT of Sweden and FMT of Italy. NEI operates 22 grinding lines out of which 17 are used for Deep Groove Ball Bearings (DGBB) and five are used for Double Row Angular Contact (DRAC) Bearings. NEI is also provided technical assistance

by NTN (Japan) and Amsted Rail (Brenco, USA).

NEI is also working on nextgeneration technologies and is ploughing back a tleast 1-2pc of the revenue in its R&D activities.

Currently, the company has developed a low torque bearing that can reduce friction up to 20pc, which results in better fuel efficiency.

ABC Bearings Established in 1960 by setting up a plant in Lonavala, in collaboration

May 2013 / 39

assistance agreement for ball and tapered roller bearing with NSK Ltd., Japan to upgrade its manufacture process and improve quality of the product. As the company incurred heavy losses in the ball bearing division, the management decided to exit from this business and concentrate more on its core business of manufacturing and marketing of roller bearings. The company has absorbed technology assistance from Japan and their experts visited the plant to guide the engineering staff and implementation of various technological improvements. The company also exports its products to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh. The

with Steyr Diamler Puch, Austria, ABC Bearings which was previously known as Antifriction Bearings Corporation’ currently has three plants that serves automobile and other industries. These plants manufacture ball thrust, taper, spherical and cylindrical roller bearings particularly for the domestic market. During 199798, the company entered into a long term licensing and technical

40 / May 2013

company’s customers include Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors Limited and the tractor industry. To respond to the rapidly growing automobile market in India, which is undergoing continued economic growth, NSK is currently expanding operations of NSK-ABC Bearings Limited (hereafter, “NABI”), an automobile bearings manufacturer established as a joint venture with a prominent company in the region.

NSK decided that it was essential to further increase the production capacity of NABI to prepare for growing demand forecast in the Indian market. Toward this end, the company increased its capital stake in NABI by 1,590 million Indian rupees (approximately 2.4 billion yen) on January 12, 2012. As a result, NABI’s capital amounted to a yen equivalent of about 7.1 billion. As the amount is equivalent to 10pc or more of NSK’s capital, NABI qualifies as a specified subsidiary of NSK.

ARB Bearings Headquartered at Delhi, the company was incorporated in 1990 and is run by professionals with over forty years of experience in the bearings industry. It is engaged in

Cylinderical Roller

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Pictures courtesy ARB Bearings

Picture courtesy ABC Bearings

Bearing Special

Bearing Special NTN India

the operations of manufacturing and exporting a wide range of automotive and industrial bearings and includes taper roller bearings, spherical roller bearings, needle roller bearings, ball bearings, deep groove ball bearings etc. Its products are exported to various countries including USA, Italy, Argentina, Austria, Poland, Germany and many more. These bearings are manufactured in various technical specifications and can also be customised to suit the varied requirements of the clients.

Within a short duration since inception, the company has carved a niche for itself in various segments ranging from automobiles to industrial machinery to household appliances. What was initially a private conglomerate is today a public limited company with an annual growth rate of 40pc.

SKF India Ltd. SKF’s roots in India can be traced back to 1923, when a trading

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arm of SKF Group was set up in Kolkata. Since then, SKF has been serving the Indian market with high quality bearings for over three decades. As the world leader in bearing technology for over a century, SKF has developed a unique understanding of rotating equipment and how machine components and industrial processes are interrelated. Today SKF provides a wide range of technologies and products to OEM and aftermarket customers around the world, in every major industry, at each phase of the asset lifecycle. SKF India Limited is engaged in manufacturing bearings and related components, which are used in a wide range of applications across industries. The company services various industries from agriculture machinery, automobile, cement, defense, general engineering, infrastructure power, machine tools, off-road vehicles, railways and steel. It manufactures its products out of plants based in Bengaluru, Pune and Haridwar.

NTN Corporation (a.k.a. Niwa, Tomoe, Nishizono) is one of the most prominent manufacturers of bearings in Japan, second domestically only to NSK Limited.

The company is one of the largest exporters worldwide of frictionreducing products such as constantvelocity joints. The Japanese company is one of the world’s largest bearing producers. With manufacturing plants throughout the world, NTN is a leading bearing supplier to both the industrial and automotive markets. Founded in 1918, NTN has long been recognised for its stringent quality standards.

Among its customers are some of the most recognised industrial and automotive brand names around the world and in India. Headquartered in Osaka, Japan, NTN employs more than 20,000 employees in 27 countries with sales, engineering, production and service networks throughout Japan, the Americas, Europe, Asia and China.

NTN Bearing India Pvt. Ltd. is a subsidiary of NTN Corporation Japan and provides marketing and technical support to NTN customers in India.

NRB Bearings Limited NRB is the India’s largest needle roller bearing and cylindrical roller bearings producer headquartered in Mumbai. NRB was incorporated in 1965 as an Indo French venture with Nadella and pioneered the production of needle roller bearings in India. The company was formerly known as Needle Roller Bearing Company Limited and changed its name to NRB Bearings Limited in 1990. Its manufacturing facilities

May 2013 / 41

Bearing Special

produce various bearings.

AEC Austin Engineering Company Limited (AEC) is a manufacturer of widest range of ball & roller bearings and its components in India without any foreign collaboration, located near Junagadh in Gujarat State. Founded by five technocrats as a partnership firm in 1973, the company has grown into a public limited company, with full array of high quality and precision bearings for various applications. From an outfit of 10 workers, that manufactured cylindrical roller bearings and deep groove ball bearings with an outside diameter of up to 50mm, AEC is today a global force in the bearings industry and churns out almost the

42 / May 2013

entire range of anti-friction bearings up to an Outside Diameter (OD) of 1,000mm. It makes various kinds of bearings such as ball, cylindrical roller; needle roller, tapered roller, spherical roller, flexible roller, super precision and special purpose. AEC rolls out 4,000 size/types of bearings used in several industrial segments and are constantly adding more items to its current wide range to cater to all your rolling element bearing needs.

Tata Bearings The Bearings Division of Tata Steel is one of Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest quality bearing manufacturers, with a production capacity of 37 million bearing numbers. It is the only bearings manufacturer in India to have to win

the TPM Award (2004) from Japan Institute of Plant Maintenance, Tokyo.

Ever since the start of operations at the Kharagpur Facility, Tata Bearings has been constantly implementing new technology, and improving systems and processes through innovations in the field to deliver greater value to customers. In the initial stages the technology was obtained from M/s Societe Nouvelle de Roulements (SNR) - France, through a technical collaboration but presently all developments are carried out in-house. The Division has state-of-the-art IT hardware with ASP as the ERP platform for an online information system. Tata Bearings has a technical collaboration with Nachi Fujikoshi Corp., of Japan for developing and testing of key automotive bearings. For certain

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Bearing Special

applications, it has also tied up with the IITs and CMERI Durgapur.

ZKL India The brand ZKL was founded in the year 1921 and is more than 90 years old, which is located at Czech Republic which is an erstwhile part of East European Block. In India industries had been using this brand for over last 50 years. It was represented in India by a few dealers and distributors who simply used the brand for trading purpose. ZKL Bearings (India) Pvt. Ltd. was set up in late 2002 to provide an official representation for the brand in the country. With the Head Office located at Kolkata and regional offices present at Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Gurgaon.

FAG Bearings India Limited FAG Bearings India Limited was incorporated in 1962. Since January 2002 FAG has been integrated into a strong network because that is when FAG, together with INA and LuK formed the Schaeffler Group. INA and FAG became the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s second largest rolling bearing manufacturer.

FAG Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s headquarter and manufacturing facilities are located in Vadodara, Gujarat, India. FAG India has its presence in automotive and across all core industrial segments.

FAG India caters to all major industry segments including: construction machinery, electrical engineering, fluid technology, conveying equipment, industrial gears, mining and cement, power generation, agricultural engineering, steel plants, motorcycles, textile machinery, machine tools, wind power, pulp and

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paper and so on.

Timken India Timken India Ltd. is engaged in manufacturing and distributing tapered roller bearings, components and accessories for the automotive sector and the railway industry. It also provides maintenance contract services. The company manufactures bearings in all types, such as large size tapered roller bearings, spherical roller bearings, cylindrical roller bearings and specialty ball bearings. It produces solid steel bars, billets and seamless mechanical steel tubing and also offers a range of power transmission products for automotive, aerospace and general industrial applications. Furthermore, it also offers repair services for industrial bearings, rail components, chocks and rolls used in primary metal applications, and aircraft assemblies, such as gearboxes and transmissions. The Indian arm of the US-based firm manufactures tapered roller bearings in its Jamshedpur plant. Timken India also set up

its second facility at the Special Economic Zone in Chennai to manufacture and export large bore bearings and advanced products such as matched bearing assemblies.

EBC Bearings India EBC Bearings (India) Limited manufactures and markets bearings, industrial bearing, ball bearing, taper roller bearing, cylindrical roller bearing, spherical roller bearing, needle roller bearing, water pump bearing, and pillow block bearing.

The company was incorporated in 2006 and is based in Hyderabad, India. EBC Bearings (India) Limited operates as a subsidiary of European Bearing Corporation OJSC. As of February 28, 2011, EBC Bearings (India) Limited operates as a subsidiary of Sujana Universal Industries Ltd. Manufacturer and exporter of industrial bearing, ball bearing, taper roller bearing, cylindrical roller bearing, spherical roller bearing, needle roller bearing, water pump bearing and pillow block bearing.

May 2013 / 43

Cover Report

ESCORTS LTD.

Engineering growth Report P. Tharyan Photography Mohd. Nasir

44 / May 2013

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Nikhil Nanda, Joint Managing Director, Escorts Ltd. S. Sridhar, CEO, Escorts Agri Machinery

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May 2013 / 45

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W

ith engineering as its forte, the Nandas of Escorts Ltd. have embarked upon an ambitious drive to consolidate its position on the Indian corporate firmament. Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a well laid out plan (a lot of which is still under wraps), and the company is extremely bullish about its business prospects in the coming years. In an exclusive and extensive interview with Motown India magazine, Nikhil Nanda, Joint Managing Director, Escorts Ltd. spelt out the innumerable ways by which he hopes his company will be among the front runners in the race for corporate supremacy. S Sridhar, CEO of Escorts Agri Machinery too chipped in with his critical views on his line of business.

Escorts Ltd. is today a 4,000 crore company that primarily earns its revenues from agricultural tractors and implements and construction equipment. Around a year back the company merged a few of its group companies into Escorts Ltd. These included Escorts Construction Equipment Limited (ECEL), Escorts Finance and Investments Private Limited (EFILL) and Escotrac Finance Investments and Leasing Private Limited (Escotrac). Escorts plants are spread across Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Rudrapur and Warsaw in Poland (Europe).

The different plants in Faridabad manufacture Farmtrac tractors, Powertrac tractors, automotive parts like shock absorbers and crankshafts and railway products. The Ballabhgarh plant is into construction equipment, material handling and earth moving equipment. The Rudrapur plant is solely into auto components. The plant in Poland makes Farmtrac tractors.

Escorts Ltd., which had once ventured into businesses like motorcycles and

46 / May 2013

healthcare, is today an extremely focussed company. Everything about it smacks of a solid purpose.

To ensure that each of the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s four core businesses does extremely well, the Nandas have hired top notch professionals to head them. S Sridhar, is CEO of Escorts Agri Machinery. He was earlier President, Bajaj Auto

and brand strategy has been his core area of expertise. G.V.R. Murthy is the head of Construction Machinery Business. He is the former Joint Managing Director of Tractors India Ltd. and a man with loads of experience. Lalit Pahwa heads the Auto Components Business. He comes with vast experience, having worked with

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the Tata group. Dipankar Ghosh who heads the Railways business is an ex Indian Railway Service Officer.

He was the Vice President of John Deere.

“Empowerment is my motto for building Escorts. I am looking at people of any age as long as they have passion. As long as they have competence and they have the fire in their belly,” says Nikhil Nanda. The young Nanda insists that the core competence of Escorts is engineering. “Engineering is the fabric, the architecture, the learning and the legacy of what

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was embedded by the founder Chairman HP Nanda. From the core competence we have the bi products. These are agriculture, construction equipment, railways and automotive products. From the outside Escorts is viewed as a tractor manufacturer or a railway equipment manufacturer. But the fabric is engineering which is our core competence,” he notes.

Nanda is looking at agriculture and infrastructure as two large segments of growth. Within agriculture, tractor is one piece.

“We are looking at entire crop

solution. For the last four decades we have been looking at tractors.

Now the focus is evolving towards crop solution. We are looking at productivity from all aspects and more so from the customers’ point of view. We are looking at end to end, possibly all mechanised products that he would probably use when he looks at yield. The agriculture story at Escorts is being defined very explicitly as to from this core competence of ours we can value add,” Nanda adds.

The blue print for Railways is interesting, according to Nanda.

May 2013 / 47

Cover Report

The company is spreading its presence into Metro Rail. “A lot of product tie ups are happening.

We make brakes, couplers and shock absorbers. We are getting into three or four new products.

We are tying up with companies in Europe and introducing some high end technology to the Indian government,” he informs.

Nanda admits that the company’s strategy in the auto business was wrong and hence it lost a lot of money in the last three years. “The strategy is again focussed towards going at the high end. This is taking shape. In the last 12 months the money that we were losing has come down by 60pc and within two months we should get into profit mode. We are looking at the Ducatis, we are looking at the European markets and the South American markets. We are looking at high end shock absorbers and other parts. Who knows we may look at contractual manufacturing for European companies of shock absorbers to begin with of companies of high repute. The cost of that part could be the cost of the cheapest bike in India. We are moving up the value chain,” he adds.

FARMERS’ BEST FRIEND Nanda points out that his company has over the past two to three years done an extensive research in understanding the cultivation patterns in the country—the kind of crops that are grown, the kind of soil across different regions, etc . The company has mapped the entire process of some major crops in terms of what farmers do to prepare the land, cultivate the land, harvest the crop etc. “In each

48 / May 2013

of these layers we want to see what technology and mechanised products we can bring in. In the last three to four years we have looked at bringing in partners, products and technology which is being married to the specific requirement of that specific core value add that the customer is looking at.

And each of the processes is very intelligently stitched to give an overall experience. Today if you are a farmer and you have a piece of land and you want to grow you will have to go to multiple partners and manufacturers to get what you

need. Escorts is now saying that not only will we give you mechanised products which are world class but we shall also bring in soft knowledge. We have picked up a lot of this knowledge from different countries. We picked up certain themes from South East Asian countries of practices which are very different to what we use in India,” he explains.

Escorts is combining its products with the practices that it have learnt from abroad and is bringing these too India. This is going to be its USP. “Our objective is that we want

“Empowerment is my motto for building Escorts.

I am looking at people of any age as long as they have passion. As long as they have competence and they have the fire in their belly”

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also several other products related to agriculture. The company is going to come out with products within the farm community. Within the tractor industry, the company is also looking at the high end market.

The company has two tractor brands-- Farmtrac and Powertrac.

There is a clear distinction between these two brands. Recently, the company announced a tie up with Ferrari tractors. “Escorts will be in the tractor business the most profitable company in India by 2015. Even in the last 12 months when the markets were going

through difficulties, we have taken our EBIDTA up from 4.3pc to 10pc.

We are looking at making our organisation lean and intelligent, creating more flexibility and becoming more frugal. By 2020 we would like to look at ourselves as a clear No. 2 in terms of market share.

The journey is already showing results. Our margins in Escorts Agri Machinery are on the rise,” says Nanda.

FASHION QUOTIENT AND BEYOND “Farmers’ friend is a philosophy as

Picture Courtesy: Escorts Ltd.

to become the farmers’ best friend.

We want to hold his hand. We want to value add at every stage and in every process and give him the equipment and the advice he needs, so that the overall experience becomes the whole sole experience,” says Nanda. The company has done experimental sites down south. It has invited scientists, farmers and experts and got their views. It now hopes to cascade this model across the country.

As part of its strategy to provide crop solution to the farmers, Escorts would not only be into tractors but

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Picture Courtesy: Escorts Ltd.

Cover Report

Shock Absorber Assembly Plant

Mr Rajan Nanda keeps telling us.

Crop solution is a serious business,” says S Sridhar who heads the agri business of Escorts. Sridhar is betting big on the fashion quotient of tractors, among other things.

“Look at the way in which the cars and bikes have gone up in terms of fashion quotient. Tractors in the meantime were looked upon as elementary in design but sturdy for rough use. The farmer is also seeing the way automobiles are evolving in the cities. For him the tractor is nothing but an equivalent of a car.

The entire approach towards the tractor has to undergo a change.

The starting point is the fashion quotient itself. Many of the existing designs are very monolithic. There is virtually no branded differentiation.

The high end tractor has to be unique, aggressive etc. The black one on display at our office presents

50 / May 2013

that philosophy. Three years later you will see a far superior manifestation,” he points out.

Sridhar says his company will be surrounded by world class brands.

“One such thing is Ferrari. This may be too expensive, too niche, not affordable for a lot of customers. We are going to bring many of these niche products into India. First to the market is our philosophy. We shall be going to Korea to bring in a brand but it’s too early to discuss that. Why just one colour on a tractor, why cannot it be shades of black and chrome. This will be priced 30,000 to 40,000 more than its equivalent spec tractor.

The initial response has been very good. We are only showcasing to people. There’s a huge rural youth wanting to catch up and be part of evolution of Indian society. As an industry very less things were done

to them. Our attempt is to be on the forefront of this industry,” Sridhar adds.

MECHANISATION IS THE ANSWER Sridhar says that somewhere someone has to bring in the change instead of blaming the society. “A man should not do drudgery. What he cannot do and what he should not do in the farm sector is what we are trying to solve. What he cannot do is precision. Picking and dropping seeds is precision. For example, one kilogram of tomato seeds consists of lakhs of seeds.

The seeds are expensive. It needs precision picking and dropping,” explains Sridhar.

“What he should not do is drudgery. Mechanisation will relieve him of drudgery as well as

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the pyramid of Europe will mean a lot of money for me. We have a plant in Poland which we shall use.

We shall build capacities,” he reveals.

Sridhar further elaborates that mechanisation will come handy all across India, as there is an acute shortage of workers in several parts of India.” In the rural space a huge revolution is taking place. There are no workers. The mechanisation space is huge opportunity for companies like Escorts. Productivity increases with mechanisation. This is huge business opportunity. We have not even scratched the surface,” he feels.

“The European and US markets are looking at 100HP and above up to 220HP tractors That is very high

end. What we call high end is 55HP and above. This is the bottom end of the pyramid in Europe. In India over the last 15 years, the 50HP and above segment has been growing from a 7pc to a 14pc. This segment will increase substantially. We want to be No. 1 in the premium segment. Escorts wants to be No. 1 player in the premium segment that constitutes 50HP and above. And this segment will automatically flow into the rest of the global markets,” states Nanda.

INFRASTRUCTURE SECTOR If Escorts has aggressive plans for the agri sector, it has aggressive

Picture Courtesy: Escorts Ltd.

ensuring precision. These two will form part of our crop solution. The conventional way is to put a tractor in the middle and surround it with different equipment. We are doing it differently. We put a crop in the centre. All mechanical solution around the crop is what we are trying to master, including the land preparation,” he adds.

Echoing Nikhil Nanda’s views, Sridhar notes that his company, instead of targeting the bottom end of the pyramid in India’s tractor market, will do so of the developed world. The bottom of the pyramid in Europe is actually the top end of the Indian pyramid. “We shall be attacking the bottom of the pyramid of the developed world. Bottom of

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Picture Courtesy: Escorts Ltd.

Cover Report

plans for the infrastructure sector too. “At Escorts we strongly believe that ‘E’ is for engineering and ‘E’ is for excellence. By 2030, India and China are going to dominate the world economy, both from the sheer size of agriculture and infrastructure.

We are going to be one of the largest participants in this space,” says Nikhil Nanda.

The company is broadly into two segments within infrastructure. One is the material handling segment.

Here Escorts is No. 1 in terms of market share. The company has 51pc market share. “We are leaders today in the country. We are leaders in the pick and carry cranes from seven tonnes to 21 tonnes. We have made very relevant products for large players like Reliance. A lot of

52 / May 2013

our safe cranes are being preferred in the Metro project, especially after the spate of accidents that happened in the past,” says Nanda.

The second is the earth moving segment. The company is into back hoe loader space. “If you have to be a serious player in the infrastructure segment you have got to be leaders in this segment,” he asserts. Escorts back hoe loaders are sold under the brand ‘Digmax’. These come in both a two-wheel as well as a four-wheel drive. Escorts is the second company after Beml to have conceptualised the product all by itself. The third company to do is Mahindra which has also come out with a back hoe loader. “Escorts is going to play a very predominant role in the infrastructure space. We

are planning to get into the high end space of slew cranes. These are specialised cranes in the 60 tonnes and above space. For high end we have tied up a company called Locatalli from Italy. We want to position Escorts in such a way that we are known for making specialised high end cranes and infrastructural products. Compactors are an important part of our growth. We have products for a man building a house to a man building a dam.

Except for coal mining, we have all products for the infrastructure segment,” says Nanda.

THE JOURNEY POST MERGER Post merger, Nanda says, the goal

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his plans. He will use his premises to do high end jobs. Over the next three to four years his company will be reducing space as much as it would be building capacity.

“Our tractor capacity will go up from 92,000 to around 120,000 and beyond. Between 1/3rd to 2/3rds of our premises would get vacated.

The focus is on cash. We are getting people to work on our knowledge management centre. We have partners coming in from Europe both for the tractor side as well as the construction side. By 2020 Escorts has to get a rating of AAA. My job is to get the best pedigreed and the best in class people. I want to be surrounded by high powered

executives. The decision making has to be based on processes.

And that process has to have clear benchmarks,” he asserts.

Nanda is not bitter of any of his past business experiences. Rather he says he is proud of the company’s legacy and proud of all what his company has done. “I think with pride I can say that everything that we did, we brought in a lot of concepts, a lot of products, and lot of technology into India,” he says. He is now relying on his crack team of CEOs to take his company forward. And with people like Sridhar by his side, he can be rest assured that the dream journey of Escorts has just begun.

Picture Courtesy: Escorts Ltd.

is to become the most profitable company. “We are making it lean.

We have invested in the most sophisticated ERP-- Oracle R12. We have merged the four departments at Escorts Ltd.----Materials, Finance, Human Resources and Manufacturing Excellence. We are reducing the number of manpower.

I want to balance the gender. I want more females to come into the company. We are less than 1pc and we want to take it up to a substantially higher number. I want women on the shop floors and even at the board level. I am looking at flattening the organisation and delayering it,” points out Nanda.

Nanda is firm when it comes to

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Upbeat Uno Minda eyeing US$ 2bn by 2015-16 Report: Avishek Banerjee, Photography: Mohd. Nasir

U

nmindful of the current slump in the automobile market, the UNO Minda Group is gearing up to increase its exposure both in the domestic as well as international markets through its wide range of products. An automotive leader in switches, horns and lights, the UNO Minda group is now foraying into car infotainment segment. It has signed a technical agreement for design, manufacture and sale of highly engineered automotive lamps. The group has recently forayed into automotive filters. It has also started developing parts for Harley motorcycles in India and for Triumph and BMW globally. While it exports directly to the United States and Europe, it also does so indirectly through its overseas manufacturing units in Indonesia. The group is also looking at increased sales from its aftermarket vertical where it sells products like air brakes, alloy wheels, wheel covers, spoilers etc. The group is also eyeing the off-road segment for broadening its product portfolio.

All these initiatives are expected to ensure that the UNO Minda group clocks revenues of US$ 2 billion

by FY 2015-16. Out of that total

54 / May 2013

Nirmal K. Minda, CMD, UNO Minda- NK Minda Group

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amount, the domestic market will contribute 75pc of the total business and the international operations will account for the remaining pie.

Two JVs, christened Minda F-ten Pvt. Ltd. & Fujitsu Ten Minda India Pvt. Ltd., were incorporated in May last year. Minda F-Ten Pvt. Ltd. is the sales company wherein UNO Minda has 51pc shareholding and Fujitsu Ten has 49pc shareholding.

Fujitsu Ten Minda India Pvt. Ltd. is a manufacturing company wherein Fujitsu Ten has 51pc shareholding and UNO Minda has 49pc shareholding. Nearly 90 crore would be pumped in until FY 201516 for both the JVs. The product names would be branded as ‘MF ‘without any specific company name.

The Fujitsu joint venture

Nirmal K. Minda, CMD, UNO Minda- NK Minda Group, said: “We have maintained a tradition of bringing the latest automotive technologies to Nirmal K. Minda and Shigematsu after signing the India. With the JV agreement Fujitsu JV, we intend to create a very strong local production base and complete manufacturing for to offer market-leading, technology the very first time in India for such intensive audio infotainment system products.” to Indian OEMs. This JV will bring Explaining the factors that will local design, product development drive the growth, he said: “As India’s economy grows, the number of people with more disposable income is bound to increase. Moreover, there will be a sizeable amount of young population, who are going to be potential customers for tech-savvy cars. Per car infotainment is much higher than switches. And electric and electronic systems have been our key business areas. We would like to bank on those opportunities.”

He also affirmed, “We are expecting to clock 200 crore in FY14 and eventually 450 crore till FY16.”

The JV company will produce products like stereo system, CD tuners, display audios, Audio Visual Navigation (AVN) System, multimedia, antenna amplifiers, and speakers etc. This would be the first-ever integrated design, development and manufacturing of car infotainment products in India.

It is to be mentioned that Fujitsu Ten Limited was founded in the year 1972 and its headquarters is in Kobe, Japan and has many patented technologies in the aforementioned With the Fujitsu JV, the UNO Minda Group will foray into car infotainment segment. Picture for representation purpose only products.

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Organic and inorganic growth

Minda also maintained, “The infotainment solutions in India are generally provided as a CKD or CBU form by existing players. We are the first ones who are going to localise these products. The project will start in August this year and will be catering to Toyota and Maruti to begin with. It will be serving A, B and C segment cars.”

Riding piggyback on its new vertical, UNO Minda expects to clock revenues of US$ 2 billion by FY 2015-16 for its entire operations.

Out of that total amount, the domestic market will contribute 75pc of the total business and the international operations will account for the remaining pie. It is to be mentioned that during the last fiscal, the company clocked nearly US$ 500 million and around US$ 550-600 million during FY 2012-13. “We are aiming to almost quadruple our current turnover to US$ 2 billion in the next three-four years,” affirmed Minda, adding, “ Our flagship products has so far

56 / May 2013

been switches which fetch us close to 50pc of our total business. But the equations might change as are hopeful of achieving a double digit contribution from the burgeoning infotainment segment.”

Unlike its peers who have scaled down their output, NK Minda firmly believes that this is the right time to pump in the money and reap the benefits when the market revives.

“We cannot keep our investment plans on hold. This is because once you have pressed the (investment) button, it is better not to backtrack.

So wherever we have deployed the money, the plans have been kept on track. In fact it’s a speedy continuation. The figures ( 400 crore) that we announced during the beginning of 2012 are still the same, although we keep on reviewing it.

The funds would be spent for both organic and inorganic growth,” maintained Minda.

He said that there are quite a few projects in the pipeline like Roki Minda which has been created for making filters at Bawal, Haryana. The new plant has already commenced the production of

Polaris of US is one of the several global clients of UNO Minda Group

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automotive filters and caters to the needs of OEMs in the four wheeler and two wheeler segments. It is serving Honda cars and Maruti to begin with.

Apart from entering a new segment, the homegrown auto component manufacturer is also expanding aggressively in the aftermarket segment. “Currently, the aftermarket vertical contributes around 11-12pc of the total business. Today, we do around 300-400 crore from the aftermarket vertical and are confident of reaching 1,000 crore in the next few

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fiscals. We will be running a mega sales and service network for this business. Having said this, our direct market vertical will also witness rapid growth.” The Manesar-based company sells a number of products in the automotive aftermarket space like airbrakes, alloy wheels, wheel covers, accessories like spoilers, etc.

“We are already the market leaders in switches and horns. We are present fairly good in the lighting business,” noted Minda.

As far as its direct market vertical is concerned, the company is busy strategising on segment

diversification. “We are already there on a small scale in the LCV and truck segments. We will also foray into the off-road segment with MI Torica India Limited for the agricultural implement segments. We are already supplying lights, switches and horns to the tractor segment.

But the bigger revenue stream will be derived from agricultural implements. Our partner has a better experience in Japan. In the Construction Equipment space, we are already supplying to JCB. But we will be adding further more to our client base,” stated Minda.

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A worker at the UNO Minda plant in Manesar, near Delhi

As far as international business is concerned, its volumes are derived through two kinds. “One is the direct exports from India to the United States and Europe. We are now exploring Brazil. Our overseas clients are Piaggio from Italy, Polaris (ATVs) in the US and tractor manufacturers like John Deere in the US, BMW in Germany, Ford Europe and PSA Peugeot Citroen, etc. We are already serving Royal Enfield.

We have already started developing some parts for Harley (domestic), Triumph (for international markets) and BMW (for international markets).

The other way is that the parts are routed from our overseas manufacturing units in Indonesia (supplying to Philippines, Malaysia), Vietnam (supplying to Thailand, etc), etc. We get around 17pc of

58 / May 2013

our revenue from international business and it will be close to 25pc

by FY 2015-16.” Interestingly, the Indonesian plant, which used to originally supply its products to twowheeler, has also started delivering foglamps and tail lamps to Nissan, Daihatsu, etc.

In its bid to serve more homegrown OEMs abroad and also international players in the domestic market, UNO Minda is also actively working on enhancing its R&D capabilities. The CMD of UNO Minda revealed, “Apart from working on advanced versions of our existing products, our R&D team is also working on prototype development on hybrids. Infact, we have a separate division for EV parts at Manesar and partly in Pune (10 people). The strength of our team is

400 who have been entrusted with setting international benchmarks of our existing and upcoming products.”

High-end lighting on the cards

But then why did Minda Industries Ltd., (MIL) ink a Technical Licensing Agreement (TLA) with Koreabased AMS? Minda reasoned, “The TLA has been signed for design, manufacture and sale of highly engineered automotive lamps. With this agreement AMS would provide technical support for design and development of head lamps, tail lamps, fog lamps etc., both with conventional light sources, as well as new technologies such as LED light sources, for four wheeler OEMs

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in India and Indonesia. With this partnership, we are strategically venturing into a new product line, in keeping with our diversification and consolidation approach to the Indian market. To be more specific, until now were catering to A, B segment cars with Halogen lamps. But when it comes to C and D segment cars, we need to make hi-end Xenon lamps or LED lamps for premium carmakers. There, the TLA comes into play. We will look to deliver our products to Mahindra, Tata and Maruti Suzuki. However, we will not eye two-wheelers with this business.â&#x20AC;?

When asked to elucidate the long-term vision for the company, N.K. Minda asserted, â&#x20AC;&#x153;UNO Minda has to be recognised worldwide. We want to be a global multinational

giant. We are working on quality, productivity and technology which are in tune with global standards.

By 2015-16, the strength of our

headcount will be around 12,000. By that time, we will be expanding our manufacturing base to five countries from two currently.â&#x20AC;?

The UNO Minda Group will soon be entering the high-end automobile lighting segment.

Picture for representation purpose only

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Lamborghini tractors

for Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rich farmers Report: Avishek Banerjee

60 / May 2013

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W

ith the prancing horse reaching our fields earlier, will the raging bull twiddle its thumbs? Certainly not! That’s is because Italian farm equipment maker Same Deutz-Fahr (SDF) Group is drawing up plans to introduce its Lamborghini tractors in the Indian market by next year. The decision comes close on the heels homegrown Escorts Group announcing its plans to import Ferrari tractors in India. It is to be mentioned that Same Deutz-Fahr (SDF) manufactures tractors, combine harvesters, other agricultural machines, engines and equipment. Globally, it builds tractors under the Same (Società Accomandita Motori Endotermici), Lamborghini, Hürlimann and DeutzFahr brands, and combines under the Deutz-Fahr and Duro Dakovic brands.

In an exclusive interaction with Motown India magazine, SDF India Managing Director and CEO Bhanu Sharma revealed, “We are just working out the modalities for bringing in the Lamborghini brand of tractors in India. If launched, it will be positioned above our DeutzFahr brand which we are already selling here. It will be a bit more jazzy and powerful than the existing premium tractors sold in the country.

Although we manufacture the brand at our Ranipet plant, we export it to mainly Europe and Australia,” he said, without sharing further details such as expected price of the tractors.

Same Deutz Fahr India Pvt. Ltd., the 100pc subsidiary of Same DeutzFahr Italia S.p.A, forayed into the Indian market in 1999 as a 50:50

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Bhanu Sharma, Managing Director and CEO, SDF India

JV with Greaves Cotton Ltd. Three years later the Indian operations became SDF’s 100pc subsidiary after it took over its local partner’s stake. Currently, SDF India produces tractors and engines from its plant at Ranipet near Chennai. Out of the four brands — Same, Deutz-Fahr, Lamborghini and Hurlimann — that the SDF Group has, it sells only the Deutz-Fahr brand in India.

It may be recalled that the SDF Group had bought the Lamborghini brand of tractors in

1973 following the acquisition of Trattori Lamborghini, founded by Ferruccio Lamborghini -- creator of the Lamborghini supersports cars.

Globally, the price of Lamborghini tractors starts from US$20,000 (over 10 lakh) and competes with its compatriot Ferrari, which also sells its hi-end tractors (and sports cars) in the similar price bracket. As both the brands have launched their highend sports cars, they are now keen to serve the rich farmland owners with their super-tractors.

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SIAM lashes out at IndoEU FTAs on automobiles

Picture for representation purpose only

Even as the Indian government is looking to kowtow to the demands of the EU government, automobile industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) has vehemently opposed any relaxation of tariffs on completely built units and engines. The industry association has also stated that customs duties on fully imported cars and engines should be kept in the negative list as the domestic market has yet not matured.

SIAM, in a white paper, has asserted that any reduction in import duties on vehicles will be a

62 / May 2013

‘retrograde step’ and would severely impact the sector. SIAM has also pointed out that while the EU’s market is decelerating, the Indian market is witnessing acceleration.

Therefore, the gains through this FTA will only be for EU and not for India, as claimed by SIAM in its white paper.

“I don’t think it is going to benefit us in large scale small car exports.

Even though some companies have been exporting small cars to Europe, the growth has decelerated because of the economic conditions in those countries. Moreover, the

‘Cash for Clunkers’ policy in those EU countries have been done away with.

Even though we command 60pc on Completely Built Units (CBUs), only 6.5pc import duty is imposed by such nations (on our CBUs). So I don’t think the domestic automobile industry is going to benefit in a gigantic manner if the duty comes to nil on both the sides. On the contrary, it will lead to the large scale imports of luxury cars into India as this is one of the second fastest growing economies in the world,” Sugato Sen, Deputy Director General, SIAM told Motown India

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Vishnu Mathur, Director General, SIAM exclusively.

“The government has consistently maintained this policy in all FTAs. These items have also been identified in the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016. We would like to reiterate that these tariff lines should be kept in India’s negative list under India-EU FTA. This will jeopardise the entire Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016 targets since already some manufacturers have started withholding investment because there is no clarity with respect to tariff reduction in this sector.”

“It is understood that negotiations on reducing the import tariffs on auto CBUs are in an advanced stage,” SIAM noted. “There are talks of a 50pc reduction of tariff of all cars from 60pc to 30pc and additionally a certain quota of cars (much more than what EU is exporting today) that can be exported by EU to India at a highly reduced duty of only 10-15pc.”

In 2010-11, EU exported around US$3.4 billion worth of cars as CBUs and completely knocked down units

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(CKDs) to India. On the other hand, India exported $1.7 billion worth of cars to Europe. Imports of CBUs from EU increased from 5,000 large cars in 2009-10 to 11,000 units in 2010-11 and imports of CKDs went up from 17,000 units in 2009-10 to 22,000 units in 2010-11.

However, during the same period, exports of India’s small cars have declined from almost 300,000 units in 2009-10 to around 225,000 units in 2010-11.

Vishnu Mathur, Director General, SIAM, early last year, told Motown India magazine, “There are various reasons we are averse to FTAs with Europe. Firstly, India has given a free market access to any automobile company to invest and set its shop here. No company needs a local partner and the approvals are easily granted. So if a trade happens and the manufacturing operations don’t happen, then we don’t stand to gain as employment opportunities are not generated. Secondly, if we agree for a free trade agreement for vehicles with Europe, we have to do the same with South Korea, Japan, etc. So we don’t want to create a comparative imbalance for non-European companies who have invested massively in India. Lastly, the export of small cars from India is done by South Korean and Japanese companies and not by any European ones. So it’s not a win-win situation.”

The Government of India has consistently maintained this policy in all FTAs including FTAs with Japan, ASEAN, S Korea, etc. These items have also been identified in the Automotive Mission Plan 2006-2016.

Furthermore, SIAM has claimed that the Indian auto industry is totally a private initiative and is growing but still not competitive because of the external environment

e.g., tax structure, infrastructure and facilities. Moreover, Indian automobile manufacturers do not enjoy the kind of Government support available to automobile manufacturers in developed countries. The bailout packages given to companies in US or Cash for Clunker schemes in Europe are unthinkable in India. One needs to have level playing fields to compete.

SIAM has substantiated its claim by pointing out the fact that vehicle manufacturers in India face higher costs due to embedded tax structure, deficiencies in labour laws, high finance cost, high energy cost and poor quality and availability, infrastructure inadequacies, state level levies, etc. These systemic issues need to be considered while negotiating internationally as these issues negatively impact our competitiveness. Tariff 13 reductions need to be preceded by Internal Reforms and Infrastructure Development which has not happened.

Sugato Sen, Deputy Director General, SIAM

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MTU expands service

capabilities in India The Tognum Group Company MTU India has opened a new engine test cell facility at its MTU India Service Centre in Tathawade, Pune). The test cell’s dynamometer system is capable of testing all MTU engines up to Series 4000 engines in the range from 300 to 4300kW, as per MTU test protocol, and for all applications.

Since mid-March 2013, Tognum AG has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of Engine Holding GmbH, a joint venture of Daimler AG and Rolls-Royce Group plc.

In February 2010, MTU India opened its new head office for sales and service operations in Pune. The addition of the new engine test cell facility to the MTU India Service Centre brings a new phase in MTU India’s ability to meet its Indian customers’ needs in the region.

During the opening ceremony, Satish Phadke, Director and CEO of MTU India, said, “With the inauguration of our new engine test cell facility, MTU India will be able to expand on its commitment to customers on service and better meet customer expectations for witnessing full load cycle test at the Service Centre in India. Hence, this is an important milestone for our customer service capabilities in the region.”

Tony Davis, Vice President for Network Management & Global Distribution at MTU, inaugurated

64 / May 2013

the engine test cell facility by explaining, “Establishing the new test cell at MTU India Service Centre is in line with Tognum’s expansion plan in India. Since 2010, we have expanded our presence in the Indian market with continued investments in terms of facilities, tools and network. These investments will go a long way in meeting the expectations of our esteemed customers in India.”

With its two business units, Engines and Onsite Energy, the Tognum Group is one of the world’s leading suppliers of engines and propulsion systems for off-highway applications and of distributed power generation systems. These products are based on diesel engines with up to 10,000 kilowatts (kW) power output, gas engines up

to 2,150kW and gas turbines up to 45,000kW. The product portfolio of the Engines business unit comprises MTU engines and propulsion systems for ships, for heavy land, rail and defence vehicles and for the oil and gas industry. The Onsite Energy business unit supplies distributed power generation systems carrying the MTU Onsite Energy brand.

These comprise diesel engines for emergency power, prime power and continuous power, as well as cogeneration power plants based on gas engines and gas turbines that generate both power and heat. Tognum’s product portfolio also features fuel-injection systems built by L’Orange. In 2012, Tognum generated revenue of around €3.015 billion.

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150/Contact HARPREET MEHAR harpreetmehar@gmail.com

Tête-à-tête

Sameer Malhotra CEO of Shriram Automall India Ltd. (SAMIL) Report: Avishek Banerjee, Photography: Mohd. Nasir

Shriram Auto Mall India Limited (SAMIL), a subsidiary of Shriram Transport Finance Company Limited (STFC); serves as a platform for transaction and provides finance for pre owned trucks and commercial vehicles. It provides asset acquisition and disposal services, refurbishment of pre-owned vehicles, and electronic truck bazaars. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in New Delhi. SAMIL is the country’s only organised player dealing in exhaustive range of articles like pre-owned heavy & commercial vehicles, construction & mining equipment, agricultural implements and any very soon passenger vehicles.

Can you please run us through the genesis of Shriram Automall India Limited and the uniqueness of the company’s business model?

Shriram Group was predominantly dealing in pre-owned vehicle financing business for the last 35 years. Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC), which is the flagship company of the Group, is into pre-owned vehicles’ financing business. That’s where we realised that a lot of our customers, who are into buying and selling of commercial vehicles, had to confront all sorts of middlemen like brokers, intermediaries, etc. In such a scenario, the transactions were not executed in a transparent manner. So therein we stepped in as an organised player to serve our customers in a hassle-free and efficient manner. We are giving them a platform where all the transactions are happening in a seamless and transparent manner. Initially, we introduced ‘Truck Bazaar’ as a pilot project and later came out with onestop kiosks which offer intranet-based services. Seeing the good response of

66 / May 2013

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Tête-à-tête

both the initiatives, we went a step further by setting up the country’s first automall in Chennai. Now there are 21 such automalls up and running across the country and another 30 such facilities will be established in the next four months.

Our automalls will be ramped up further to 60 facilities by the end of FY 2013-14.

You are the country’s only organised player dealing in pre-owned commercial vehicles (CVs) in close to 100 cities. What specific product range is currently placed on the bidding events and do you have any plans to add more product lines like pre-owned cars, bikes in this basket?

We started this business with commercial vehicles and diversified later into tractors, construction equipments, etc. We have just entered the pre-owned two-wheeler space a couple of months back. This was done through the online route and we have managed to clinch 100odd bidding events per month. We

will now aggressively foray in to the four-wheeler space when it comes to passenger and utility vehicles.

Through our pilot testing, we are able to organise 1,000 bidding transactions per month. Our primary focus through the online platform will remain on used two-wheelers this year.

There have been quite a few players already present in a nonorganised way. So how is your business model better than them?

Could you also brief us about your customer profile as well?

There is no other player in the organised segment in this country.

But that doesn’t mean that there is no competition. There are umpteen

Grand Automall in Hyderabad

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Tête-à-tête

players in the nonorganised segment catering to a diverse set of customers. As I just mentioned, the biggest difference between them and us is that everything is channelised in a transparent manner in our mode of operations. So all the complexities associated with the products like legal implications, RTO paperwork, lien checks, etc, are done away with.

So all these processes are established at the right price points. That again makes us different from our peers. A majority of our customers are end users who are one-truck, twotruck or even three-truck owners looking for an additional product in its fleet. There are also a handful of pre-owned truck owners who are graduating from being a driver to a single-truck owner and then to a two-truck owner. From the seller’s side, a sizeable of them is from vehicle financing companies, OEMs of tractors, CVs, construction equipments & big fleet owners etc.

Will you also be interested in allnew CVs? At this stage, we are not at all considering it. This is because the size of the pre-owned CV market is so underpenetrated that we are yet to capitalise on that. The size of brand-new CVs comprising tractors and construction equipment is worth close to 60,000 crore and another 1 lakh crore is the worth of the new car segment. The pre-owned segments will be similar in size and we are gearing up to leverage on

68 / May 2013

that.

You have just mentioned that SAMIL deals in used CVs. Do you have any plans to offer services allied to these products like fleet management solutions and bulk parking?

Parking services are already given to the used vehicles from our end as we have an ample of space all across India. In fact, we are the only player in the country who can provide this facility pan-India. We are not interested in fleet management solutions at this stage.

Are you interested in the franchisee based model? How many units are you transacting per month and what is the sales target that you have set?

Yes, as we expand into tier-II and tier-III cities we will be following this route. Presently, we do close to 5,000-6,000 per month in the offline vertical and close to 1,000 units per

month in the online business. As the market is on a downswing, the used CV segment is poised for a higher growth as people are not buying a brand-new vehicle.

As the OEMs are coming out with premium trucks and buses, will you be witnessing a change in the buying patterns of your customers?

Definitely, there will be some change in the buying patterns of our buyers.

But the demand will arise from all the segments. If you see the Small Commercial Vehicle (SCV) segment, the growth has been phenomenal.

We are still a small market if you compare our size with China. So there is immense scope for growth for all the segments from small to medium to large commercial vehicles. As people are talking about enhanced engine capacities, bigger loads and improved roads; bigger trucks are also gaining a lot of traction. In that case, the customer

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Tête-à-tête

doesn’t mind shelling out a bit more for additional advantages. So in the future, we will be forming a dedicated team for all the segments of commercial vehicles.

Are there any challenges and obstacles right now?

Yes, there are quite a few challenges.

The biggest among them is that of understanding the market. People have yet not realised the difference that we bring on the table. Another big challenge is to educate our own team about the USP of our business.

What impact has the recent economic slowdown had on Shriram as the company deals with various industries and sectors?

The economic slowdown has largely impacted the new vehicles sales.

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However, we have not seen any deceleration in our sales as we are not present in that segment. In fact, we are expecting a robust growth of 40pc in sales during this financial year.

Some years down the line are you keen on expanding into overseas markets? If yes, have you earmarked any countries?

At present, we don’t foresee entering any overseas nations with SAMIL. The only reason is that our hands are full right now. We are busy expanding our business in the domestic market only. India is potentially one of the largest automotive markets globally and SAMIL being the lone player gives us an edge. In the distant future, we may tap overseas markets as the opportunities are knocking us.

How do you see the industrial bidding business in India and what’s your vision for the company?

We are very clear in our vision that we want to be the largest player where all kind of vehicles and equipment transactions are happening. This includes passenger vehicles too. I feel that as the market evolves, we will be able to see excellent growth in our volumes.

People have found our success stories very interesting. Even though there will be an influx of more organised players, we will be having the first-mover advantage. They can imitate us, but won’t be able to control the client relationship that we have. More than that, we have the additional advantage of market knowledge. Our relationship with the customer is also very good.

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Tête-à-tête

Rakesh Batra

National Leader, Automotive Sector, Ernst & Young LLP Report: Avishek Banerjee, Photography: Mohd. Nasir

Ernst & Young (EY) is one of the largest professional service firms in the world and one of the leading accounting firms. Ernst & Young is a global organisation of member firms with 152,000 employees in more than 140 countries, headquartered in London. It is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services.

Do you expect this fiscal to replicate the similar story as the last one in the automobile industry?

I think 2013-14 would be a difficult year also. In terms of numbers, it may turn out to be similar or maybe slightly better than the last one. But I don’t think that is going to be counted as a significantly better year. And the reason for that is we are still not back on the growth trajectory in the overall economy perspective. It is affecting consumer sentiments and people do not really want to spend on discretionary products like new vehicles.

All of that is resulting in a situation that we see now. Since the economy is going to take a little bit of time to get back on the path of revival and there is an uncertainty of elections (this year), we will continue to see a similar outcome vis-àvis last year.

The Indian automobile industry made an investment of `22,000 crore during last year. Why are companies so upbeat in making fresh outlays?

If you look at the growth rates after the global crisis in 2008, we had two years of very robust growth i.e. FY 2009-10 and FY 2010-11. Furthermore, FY 2011-12 also had some moderate growth. I think

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Tête-à-tête

nobody really expected that the market will slow down in FY 2012-13.

That was primarily because nobody anticipated the economy to come down to 5pc growth rate. Moreover, we had some policy related issues like FDI as well. These were not specific to the automotive industry but in other sectors like retail, etc.

So a lot of these investments take time when it comes to building a new plant, acquiring land, installing machinery, etc. These investments were already at various stages of deployment and in anticipation of continuing growth. But two things have to be kept in mind. Firstly, there is a fair bit of cyclicality in the automotive industry that has to be factored in. Secondly, the FY 2012-13 (no growth) was completely unexpected. Everyone kept hoping that things will get better which unfortunately didn’t happen.

Probably, now we can see some slowdown in investments. But clearly from a mid-term perspective, if you look out for 2019-20, this market is going to grow because of the fundamental factors like the need for personal mobility, absence of world-class public transportation system, etc.

Indian commercial vehicle (CV) sales are expected to grow at a CAGR of 15pc in the next five years to reach 1.6 million units by 2016-17, as indicated by an Ernst & Young report. What would be the key growth drivers?

That was a report that we have released last year and did not take into account what we are seeing in FY 2012-13 wherein we are seeing significant de-growth in volumes.

But the growth drivers of CVs are primarily the economic growth, GDP, growth in agricultural production,

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augmentation of manufacturing activities. And all of these are areas where even from a policy level we want to have a greater thrust to industrial production to bring more balance between manufacturing and services in the economy. So I think those were the fundamental drivers that have not changed and are still intact. Obviously, there is some sort of cyclicality that we are experiencing this year. The forecast might change this year based on what has happened in FY 201213. As long as the economy is growing with the concurrent surge in investments, manufacturing activities, and agricultural production, the demand for CVs should reach that level. And let’s not forget the fact that the figures that we have mentioned is that of the CV industry per se that also includes small commercial vehicles which are growing much faster than the medium and heavy commercial vehicles because of its hub-andspoke model. So if we consider GST implementation in two years, the 1.6 million-target looks quite attainable.

SIAM has vehemently opposed FTAs with Europe for CBUs. Do you support their stance? And can you share your views too?

I think that’s (SIAM’s standpoint) a right solution because we want to encourage more manufacturing operations in India. An automotive sector is a major component of the overall GDP of this country at 5-6pc. According to Automotive Mission Plan (AMP), it is expected to grow to 10pc by 2016. So a 10pc contribution is a significant component of GDP and a significant component of the manufacturing sector. Furthermore, the country has a well-developed supplier

infrastructure and a formidable engineering base. At the same time, there are a lot of resources available which provides a cost-competitive platform to global automakers to design and manufacture vehicles.

So importing vehicles certainly does not support this high-level objective of getting more manufacturing into India.

Do you think global OEMs will leverage India as an export hub to emerging markets including Africa, Eastern Europe, and SouthEast Asia?

I think the exports will happen for all types of vehicles whether it is cars, CVs, lower horsepower motorcycles, etc. India certainly has scale that will enable cost-competitiveness for the global OEMs especially for small cars. In the entry-level segments, India can certainly be a major contender for exports to some of the overseas markets. As per the recent trends, a lot of entry-level cars are now being designed and manufactured in India before making inroads to other markets. So a lot of companies have earmarked India as a global manufacturing hub. Infact, a lot of premium OEMs are moving in that direction.

Early this year, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has finally unveiled the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP) 2020. Do you think it will give a fillip to the Industry?

As of today, we don’t really have much of an electric vehicle market in India. It’s very small in volumes maybe a few hybrid and electric cars. But in no ways it is a significant part of the automotive landscape.

The policy announced by the Prime Minister will certainly help in making

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these products more attractive to the consumers through various incentives, subsidies, etc. But I don’t India is going to be a significant market for electric mobility. This is because it’s not just a question of incentivising vehicles, but it is also about the infrastructure in the likes of charging stations. We have a serious deficit of power and don’t want to take the risk of buying a zero-emission vehicle and getting stuck somewhere because of absence of charging points. So what may actually play out not only here but other markets is that it may become a product of certain select cities or segments as a second or third vehicle.

Even though the there has been a deceleration in demand for vehicles, some segments like SUV, MPV, etc, are witnessing unprecedented growth. Any particular reasons?

I think the growth of these segments is really being driven by supply and not by demand. By that I mean the introduction of the new products like the Mahindra XUV500 or the Renault Duster has created the market for these products. So rather than people waiting for these products, the affordability of these products and the current operating conditions have played a pivotal role for its success. So it was driven more by supply of these products which is bridging the gap between small cars and high-end sedans and SUVs. Of late, compacts SUVs and MPVs are gaining a lot of popularity.

At the same time, the growth rate is positive also because of lower base in the preceding period. But it should see some stabilisation as we go forward.

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E&Y has claimed that that passenger vehicle sales and production in India expected to grow by 14 to 16pc over the next decade, reaching over 9 to 10 million units annually. Are you still standing by it?

I think those projections are still valid from a mid-term perspective i.e. the year 2020. As I said earlier, we will have some periods of cyclicality and some of that has been factored in. Infact, if you go 20 years back in the post-liberalisation era, the automotive industry has actually grown faster. While some periods have grown by 22pc some have seen a surge of 19pc in passenger

vehicles. Likewise, 9-10 million units in production (including domestic sales+exports) by 2020 look very achievable. These are not only EY’s views but in general the views of the industry and other forecasting firms But can the country’s automotive industry figure among the top 5 markets in the world in the next few years?

With these kinds of volumes, I would expect India to figure among the top 5 markets in the world in the next few years. This is because there is no other auto market (barring China) which is witnessing such an exponential growth.

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TÊTE-À-TÊTE

Karan Thapar Director- Marketing, Inventa Cleantec Pvt. Ltd. Report: Avishek Banerjee, Photography: Mohd. Nasir

Inventa Cleantec Pvt. Limited (formerly Industrial Spares (India) Pvt. Ltd) was incorporated in 1981 and is now one of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of cleaning equipment for automobile and other industries such as industrial vacuum cleaners, road sweepers, scrubbers & scrubber driers, high pressure jets, upholstery vacuum cleaners, steam vacuum cleaners, back pack vacuum cleaners, special plants & machines and misting system. Its cleaning equipment are installed countrywide in government, semi govt. enterprise & other public sector units and even automobile garages. The complete range of its products is manufactured at its manufacturing unit in Noida.

Could you please start with a company profile of Inventa? And how is it exactly catering to the automobile industry?

We have been into high-pressure waterjetting for almost 20 years now. That’s the premier tool for the automotive industry when it comes to mechanised washing. A mega car workshop has a turnout of not less than 30 vehicles a day even though during the weekends it goes up to 80 vehicles a day. Recently, there has been a concept of 2-hour services offered by the service outfits of Hyundai, Maruti et al. So if the vehicle has been run for over 5,000km, the workshops have to deliver the service within two hours. That is where we come into play as we automate the washing process. We also offer a series of products like pressure jets to these service points that will help them in expediting the whole process. So when the manpower services fail in terms of deliverance, we step in.

Are your customers OEMs or transport undertakings or are they car owners too?

We are not only dealing with automatic car-washing products but also with automatic bus-washers and train washers.

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Tête-à-tête

Infact, the railway segment is one of our biggest clients. However, my products are not focussed on individual car owners. Ours is a purely B2B product catering directly to the industry. Apart from car workshops, we are also supplying our products to OEMs like Maruti, GM India etc. Besides that, we have also allied with transport undertakings like RSRTC, GSRTC, and cluster buses built by Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, etc.

What product range is currently being offered by your company?

We are making hi-pressure water jets, steam cleaners, steam vacuum cleaners, and automatic car washers.

No, all products are not locally made. When we talk about hipressure jets, the pumps are imported from Italy. Our tie-up with the Italian manufacturer for the same product dates back to more than two decades. We thoroughly believe in the quality of the pumps that they provide us. So while we are assembling the jets, we source their pumps and the rest of the components are locally procured.

The idea is to provide our products to the customers which are hasslefree in the long run. We are importing some low-end pressurewashers in a CBU form as they are commercially not viable to assemble here.

So are all the products locally made?

What has been the response to your products at the Bus and

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Utility Vehicle Show?

Yes, we did participate at the Bus and Utility Vehicle Show. The response was neither overwhelming nor underwhelming. I would have been happier if the event was scheduled only for three days instead of four.

This is because the footfall on the last day was very negligible. As far as the Auto Expo is concerned, we did make our presence felt in 2012. But we are not planning to participate during the 2014 exposition.

Are there any challenges in your business?

Yes, there are some challenges. The technology required to make these machines is pretty high. If you talk about the control units, they are all imported. Although they might be easily available in the market

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Tête-à-tête

and are manufactured by branded companies like Schneider, Honeywell, Siemens, etc, they are still expensive.

The paying capacity of the Indian clientele is not up to the mark with global standards. The installation of low-grade components obviously reduces the shelf life of the products.

What impact has the recent economic slowdown had on your business as the company deals with the automotive industry?

We have yet not witnessed any decline in sales of our products. This is primarily because even though the car sales have not been very buoyant, they are still being added on a yearly basis. So the additional cars bought by consumers also need to be cleaned. So it did not have a direct impact on our volumes. But yes, there has been some kind of a delay in ordering the automatic washers.

How do you see the mechanised cleaning for the automobile industry in India and what’s your agenda for the next few years?

The agenda is to have atleast one dedicated centre which can install these machines in each tier-I city and one for tier-II

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cities. This will ensure that the reach of our products is pan-India. So every consumer, whether in tier-I or tier-II city, should get the benefit of automation.

There will be some shift to mechanised cleaning in the next few years. We intend to provide the level of automation that is required by our specific clients. We have started working on a modular system wherein our clients can go for a basic automatic chassis wash without requiring lifting the car. This is because all this will be taken care of by a robotic system which we will install.

The same system will additionally double up as a pressure washer.

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Global Report

bauma 2013

Record turnout & business at worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s No. 1 trade show in Germany Report: P.Tharyan, Photography: Courtesy Messe MĂźnchen

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Global Report

B

auma 2013, the world’s number one trade show for construction machinery, building material machines, mining machines, construction vehicles and construction equipment, concluded in Germany with some record turnout and business. The show, that can put even a glamorous auto show

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in India to shame, is held every three years in Munich, Germany. The next bauma takes place from April 11 to 17, 2016 in Munich. Heavy machinery of all shapes and sizes were put on display for the thousands of visitors who thronged the venue all seven days of the show.

The word ‘bauma’ stands for “Baumaschinen” (building machinery). It also stands for the world’s biggest building machinery

fair held every three years in Munich.

According to the organisers, around 530,000 visitors from over 200 countries converged on the Messe München exhibition centre between April 15 and 21, 2013. This edition of bauma broke all previous records for exhibitor numbers and exhibition space. It also attracted the highest number of visitors ever.

“This is very good for our industry in these turbulent times and it will

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to meet with a multitude of our customers from around the world.”

Stefan Heissler, Member of the Liebherr-International AG Board of Directors, confirmed, “This has been an absolutely positive trade show for us. We welcomed customers from all around the world at our booths and

certainly give it a boost,” said Johann Sailer, Chairman of the Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery Association of VDMA and President of the Committee for the European Construction Equipment Industry (CECE).

In total, 3,420 exhibitors – 1,346 from Germany and 2,074 from abroad – from 57 countries presented their latest products and innovations in construction and mining machinery at bauma 2013 on a record exhibition space of 570,000 square meters.

The Top Ten exhibiting countries were: Germany (1,366 exhibitors), Italy (481 exhibitors), China (323 exhibitors), USA (132 exhibitors), Turkey (124 exhibitors), UK (123 exhibitors), Netherlands (122 exhibitors), France (90 exhibitors), Spain (80 exhibitors) and Austria (70 exhibitors) Klaus Dittrich, Chairman & CEO of Messe München, the organisers of the show, said, “Our exhibitors were delighted with the quality of the visitors here and with the international spread represented

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among them. Good business has been done here. With over 200,000 visitors from outside Germany, the number of international attendees was higher than ever before. The response this year has simply been outstanding.”

The ‘Top Ten’ countries of origin among the visitors were: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, the Russian Federation, France, Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden and Poland. Indonesia, bauma’s partner country this year, was also strongly represented, with a highranking political delegation and around 800 visitors.

Exhibitors included the likes of Terex Corporation, USA, Caterpillar, Case New Holland (Fiat group), Hitachi Sumitomo of Japan, Cummins (UK), Fayat Group, France, JCB, Doosan Infracore Construction Equipment, Belgium, XCMG, China, Perkins (UK), Allison and Kobelco, Netherlands.

Said Ron DeFeo, Chairman and CEO of the Terex Corporation, “As the largest show in our industry, bauma represents a unique opportunity

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Global Report we signed up lots of new orders. In some product sections we exceeded our expectations by a long way.”

Equally ecstatic was Michael Heidemann, Chairman of the Management Board of Zeppelin Baumaschinen GmbH. “From the first day on, the booth of Zeppelin and Caterpillar was almost overrun

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with visitors. We have sold more machines at bauma 2013 than ever before and have set a new record,” he said. XCMG Vice President Yanmei Zhang, noted, “XCMG solicited orders with a total value of over 10 million euros for its products which is around 120 units of machines. We had a good economic return on our

investment in the show.”

Mario Gasparri, Brand President, CNH Construction Equipment, Italy said, “I am positively impressed by bauma 2013 and happy about the results of our brands, Case and New Holland Construction. bauma gave us also the opportunity to welcome our dealers and customers from

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Global Report

many different areas of the world: We had visitors from Africa, Latin America, Europe as well as from the Middle East and Asia. We are looking forward to the next edition in 2016!”

Davide Cipolla, Chief Executive Officer, Cifa Spa, Zoomlion Heavy Industries, Italy was equally positive about the show. “bauma Munich is the most important show for our industry worldwide. A lot of customers, visitors, key accounts and suppliers visited us and we think we achieved our goals in participating in this trade fair. bauma is ‘the fair’, because it is the truly international one. We had customers coming from the Americas, the Middle East, the Far East, Africa and Europe. For sure Cifa and Zoomlion group will participate in 2016,” he said.

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Several new products were launched at the show in Munich.

New Holland Construction launched a new C Series Dozer at the show.

The company introduced the new C Series dozers, extending the offering with an additional model at the low end of the range, which now offers three models ranging from 13 to 20 tons. Redesigned from the ground up, the new C Series makes a complete break from the previous generation to offer new features that will allow operators to work faster and save fuel.

Iveco, also part of the Fiat group, took part inthe show. Fiat Industrial Group was present with its three core businesses: CNH, Iveco and FPT Industrial, represented by the Case Construction, New Holland

Construction, Iveco, Astra and FPT Industrial brands. Construction equipment from Case Construction were positioned in an area located on the exterior grounds.

A full spectrum of Iveco offroad vehicles with every carrying capacity were presented on the stand from the lightest segment through to the heaviest. Each of the vehicles demonstrated the principal characteristics that make them ideal for work in construction or mining, from their ability to navigate on rough and uneven terrain to cabin comfort and ergonomics, as well as flexibility depending on use.

The Iveco vehicles on display on the Fiat Industrial stand were: the new Trakker and the Stralis Hi-Way representing the off-road

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Global Report

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Global Report

heavy range; the Eurocargo for the medium range and the Daily for the light segment. The range offering was completed with a full set of vehicle range solutions from the Astra brand, which respond to the most extreme on-road and off road demands. The stand acted as a stage for the world premiere of the super heavy duty HHD9. The ADT 30 dumper was also displayed on the stand, while the Astra RD32 rigid dump truck was displayed on the Case Construction stand located in the exterior area.

OEMs also displayed Allison fully automatic-equipped vehicles at the show. From Randon Vehicles, a leading supporter of Brazil’s biggest infrastructure projects, to the Zijin Mining Corporation, China’s largest producer of gold, many

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leading OEMs equip their toughest construction and mining vehicles with Allison transmissions.

Volker Hein, manager of C.A.T. Construction GmbH, a German company that delivers special

equipment for oil and gas worldwide, spoke about their machines operating during the coldest Siberian winters with temperatures dropping below -40°C. “There is almost no challenge an

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Global Report

Allison cannot cope with. That’s why we have been using them for more than 20 years. Allison transmissions are always prepared to deliver the best results.”

Valery Arestov, Chief Engineer at TechStroyGaz, too aired a similar view. Since 2004, TechStroyGaz has operated 24-ton Scania R114С (6х6) dump trucks in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District, an area wellknown for its uncompromising permafrost and swampy roads. One of these vehicles was equipped with a fully automatic Allison transmission; while approaching half a million kilometers, neither the six-speed Allison 4000 Series transmission, nor the vehicle it equips, has ever needed an unscheduled repair.

With sweltering summers that

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heat internal machine components to an excess of 70°C, the Australian outback is another of the harshest possible environments. Yet, two Steiger Tiger tractors equipped with Allison 6000 Series transmissions have each logged more than 50,000 hours without breakdowns or major delays at the Arumpo Bentonite mine.

Allison-equipped trucks operate 1000 meters below soil in iron ore fields of northern Sweden and at the Blue Nile’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam construction site, delivering high performance and great reliability no matter the terrain and operation conditions.

The SKF booth provided an opportunity to learn about SKF’s wide portfolio of offers for Mining, Construction, Monitoring

and Service. The exhibition was presented under the overall theme: “The power of knowledge engineering.”

Messe München International which organises the show also organises trade shows in Asia, Russia, the Middle East and South Africa. With nine affiliates abroad – in Europe, Asia and in Africa – and over 60 foreign representatives actively serving over 90 countries, Messe München International has a worldwide business network. The Group also takes a pioneering role as regards sustainability: It is the first trade-fair company to be awarded energy-efficiency certification from the technical inspection authorities TÜV SÜD. Alongside the brand events bauma China in Shanghai and bauma

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Global Report

Africa in Johannesburg, as well as bC India in Mumbai, the latter in cooperation with the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), Messe M端nchen is also active as a cooperation partner in other regional events for the sector outside Germany, via its subsidiary IMAG. Ricardo shows off its flywheel energy recovery technology: The internal Ricardo HFX (High Efficiency Excavator) research programme demonstrates the application of highly cost-effective technologies for the improvement of performance and/or reduced fuel consumption in highly cyclical construction

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Global Report

equipment. The work shown at Bauma applies Ricardo’s flywheel technology to a midsized excavator, recovering energy from boom descent and optionally slewing, and reusing it multiple ways including boom raising. An interactive mock-up of the system was on display along with information and videos showing the demonstrator machine in operation. HFX is just one demonstration of Ricardo’s high speed flywheel energy storage technology, which is applicable to a range of cyclical equipment and vehicles across the offhighway sector and related markets, with other projects currently on-going in the on-highway and rail sectors.

Also on show was the Ricardo Twin Vortex Combustion System – adopted by multiple global OEM customers for some of their current and planned low emissions engines – which is capable of achieving US Tier 4 interim and Euro 5 emissions, without expensive aftertreatment technology.

Ricardo personnel wereat the show to discuss the company’s capabilities in vehicle engineering, including rapid new machine concept development, total systems analysis and prototype build, integration of new technologies such as flywheel energy recovery, NVH optimisation and electrical systems integration. A comprehensive electric hybrid

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systems development capability is also available, providing robust solutions for electrical energy storage, motor systems and control systems engineering, and also the electrification of ancillaries and production implementation of entire powertrain solutions. In transmissions, Ricardo’s approach to off-highway dual clutch transmission was discussed, delivering a low production cost, robust, high efficiency powershift capability.

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Global Report

LEAF is not one car, it’s a

vision, says Carlos Ghosn

I

n April 2013, Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn hosted an intimate gathering of media in Oslo, Europe’s electric vehicle capital, and spoke about the new Nissan LEAF and his vision of zero-emissions mobility. “The momentum is building around electric cars,” said Ghosn. Sales of the Nissan LEAF surpassed 1,300 vehicles in March in Europe, and exceeded 2,200 in March in the United States.

Customers who drive the LEAF are helping make it a success. More than 90pc drive their LEAF every day, and 93pc of European customers come from other brands, Ghosn explained.

Additionally, 93pc of customers are very satisfied or completely satisfied with their Nissan LEAF. The new LEAF, which launches in Europe this summer, brings more than 100 changes influenced by customer feedback, including increased real-world driving range, reduced charging time, and bigger boot space.

“The Renault-Nissan Alliance has sold more electric cars than the other major manufacturers combined,” said Ghosn. “The LEAF is not one car.

It’s a vision.”

Nissan has one of the most comprehensive European presences of any overseas manufacturer, employing more than 14,500 staff across locally based design, research & development, manufacturing, logistics and sales & marketing operations. Last year Nissan plants in the UK, Spain and Russia produced more than 695,000 vehicles including mini-MPVs, award-winning crossovers, SUVs and commercial vehicles. Nissan now offers 24 diverse and innovative products for sale in Europe today, and is positioned to become the number one Asian brand in Europe.

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Technology

Ford announces a new 1.5 litre EcoBoost petrol engine

Ford Motor Company has announced a new 1.5-litre EcoBoost petrol engine will join its line-up of fuelefficient, innovative powertrains.

The 1.5-litre engine is a key strategic entry for Ford, as the company works to meet the strong global demand for its four-cylinder EcoBoost engines.

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With the launch of the newest fuel-efficient engine, Ford now has capacity to build 1.6 million EcoBoost engines annually. By the end of 2013 six plants across Europe, Asia and North America will be producing EcoBoost engines, triple the number that were doing so in 2010.

Production of the four-cylinder 1.5-litre EcoBoost – the fifth member of the EcoBoost family – will commence initially at Ford’s worldclass facility in Craiova, Romania.

Other manufacturing locations will be announced in the future. The new engine will be first introduced in China in the all-new Ford Mondeo,

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Technology

that made its public debut at the Auto Shanghai Show 2013, with applications following in the Fusion sedan in North America this year, and later the new Mondeo in Europe.

As a key contributor to Ford’s aggressive fuel economy and emissions strategy, EcoBoost technologies enable improvements to both fuel efficiency and CO2 emissions of up to 20pc. The 1.5-litre engine benefits from signature EcoBoost turbocharging, direct fuel injection and variable valve timing and has been designed to be even more fuel-efficient and offer high levels of engine refinement, quietness and performance.

Additionally, the newest EcoBoost engine will be a strategic entry for Ford in global markets that offer tax relief to consumer who purchase vehicles powered by engines of 1.5-litre capacity or less.

The new aluminium-block, twin-cam 1.5-litre EcoBoost engine will feature some of the innovative features introduced on the awardwinning 1.0-litre EcoBoost, including an integrated exhaust manifold. The new engine is expected to provide similar horsepower and torque performance to Ford’s current 1.6-litre EcoBoost, while delivering improved fuel

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economy and lower CO2 emissions.

The 1.5-litre EcoBoost engine is the first engine from Ford to incorporate a computer-controlled clutch on the belt-drive water pump, which further improves efficiencies by reducing warm-up time. A watercooled charge air cooler is added to offer a more efficient feed of air into the engine.

“Ford EcoBoost technology has changed the way people look at petrol engines and has enjoyed huge success with customers,” said Joe Bakaj, vice president, Powertrain Engineering, Ford Motor Company.

“The new 1.5-litre unit further extends our EcoBoost promise of

economical motoring in terms of both fuel efficiency and, in some markets, tax-savings.”

Ford has sold more than 600,000 EcoBoost-equipped vehicles globally since the range was launched with the 3.5-litre V6 EcoBoost in 2009.

Ford added the 2.0-litre EcoBoost in 2010; the 1.6-litre EcoBoost followed in 2011; and last year the 1.0-litre EcoBoost was launched, winning the 2012 “International Engine of the Year” award.

By the end of this year, nearly 80pc of the company’s global nameplates will be available with fuel-saving EcoBoost technology.

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Technology

Volvo to launch engine with

i-ART technology

Volvo Car Group’s new engine family VEA (Volvo Engine Architecture) will be launched with world-first i-ART technology that helps to cut fuel consumption in the new diesel engines.

By featuring pressure feedback from each fuel injector instead of

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using a traditional single pressure sensor in the common rail, i-ART makes it possible to continuously monitor and adapt fuel injection per combustion in each of the four cylinders.

“Increasing the rail pressure to an exceptionally high 2,500 Bar, while

adding the i-ART technology, can be described as the second step in the diesel revolution. It is a breakthrough comparable to when we invented the groundbreaking lambda sensor for the catalytic converter in 1976.

It’s another world-first for Volvo,” says Derek Crabb, Vice President

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Technology

Powertrain Engineering at Volvo Car Group.

He adds: “Each injector has a small computer on top, which monitors injection pressure. Using this information, the self-adapting i-ART system makes sure that the ideal amount of fuel is injected during each combustion cycle.”

The combination of higher injection pressure and i-ART technology gives the customer an engine with improved fuel economy, considerably lower emissions and high performance output as well as a powerful sound character.

Volvo Car Group will launch the Volvo Engine Architecture in autumn 2013. With VEA, Volvo will also

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introduce a new 8-speed automatic gearbox that contributes to a refined drive and excellent fuel economy.

Diesel common rail and petrol direct injection are standard in the upcoming modular range of diesel and petrol engines.

Several levels of turbo charging open up for the flexibility to cover the whole range from fuel-efficient derivatives through to high power and torque variants. In order to cover all customer requirements, certain engines will also gain added performance via electrification or other spearhead technology.

“The new powertrains will boost driving pleasure through their agile,

yet smooth, responsiveness and the seamless character of the new 8-speed automatic,” says Derek Crabb.

“We will create smaller, more intelligent engines with so much power that they will turn V8s into dinosaurs. Our four-cylinder engines will offer higher performance than today’s six-cylinder units and lower fuel consumption than the current four-cylinder generation. On top of that, electrification will bring us up into power figures in today’s V8territory,” says Derek Crabb.

The engines will be built at Volvo Car Group’s high-tech engine plant in Skövde, Sweden.

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Industry overview Passenger Vehicle Manufacturers in India Total Domestic Sales + Exports - March 2013 2,30,693 Units

Ford India 3.23%

GM India 3.09%

VW India 3.08%

Others 2.70%

Tata Motors 4.10% Honda Cars 4.49% Maruti Suzuki 44.97%

Toyota Kirloskar 4.73%

Nissan Motor 5.17%

Hyundai Motor 24.44%

Others Skoda Auto India Pvt. Ltd. (0.88%)

Renault India Pvt. Ltd. (0.83%)

Hindustan Motors Ltd. (0.27%)

Fiat India Automobiles Pvt. Ltd. (0.20%)

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (0.52%)

Based on SIAM figures

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Industry overview Utility Vehicles Manufacturers in India

Total Domestic Sales + Exports - March 2013 78,093 Units

Others GM 1.33% India 2.41% Renault India 8.94%

Mahindra & Mahindra 35.85%

Toyota Kirloskar 13.11%

Tata Motors 17.62% Maruti Suzuki 20.74%

Others Nissan Motor India Pvt. Ltd. (0.44%)

Force Motors Ltd (0.34%);

Hindustan Motors (0.29%)

Ford India Pvt. Ltd. (0.06%)

Skoda Auto India Pvt. Ltd (0.06%)

Hyundai Motor India Ltd. (0.06%)

Honda Cars India Ltd. (0.04%)

Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd. (0.04%) Based on SIAM figures

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Industry overview Two Wheeler Manufacturers in India

Total Domestic Sales + Exports - March 2013 12,51,339 Units

Suzuki Motorcycle 2.05% India Yamaha Motor 4.03%

Others 1.97%

TVS Motor 12.99%

Hero MotoCorp 37.42 %

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India 20.20%

Bajaj Auto 21.34%

Others Royal Enfield (0.97%)

Mahindra Two Wheelers Ltd. (0.62%)

Piaggio Vehicles Pvt.Ltd. (0.37%)

H-D Motor Company India Pvt.Ltd. (0.01%)

Based on SIAM figures

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Industry overview Three Wheelers in India

Total Domestic Sales + Exports - March 2013 65,875 Units

Force Motors Scooters 0.06% India Atul Auto 2% 4.60%

Mahindra & Mahindra 7.64%

TVS Motor Company 7.71% Bajaj Auto 51.91%

Piaggio Vehicles 26.08%

Based on SIAM figures

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Industry overview Light Commercial Vehicle Manufacturers in India Total Domestic Sales + Exports - March 2013 59,628 Units Mahindra Navistar 1.56% Others 1.23% VECV Eicher Force 1.82% Motors 3.58% Ashok Leyland 7.25%

Mahindra & Mahindra 27.38%

Tata Motors 57.18%

Others SML Isuzu Ltd. (0.81%)

Piaggio Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. (0.37%)

Hindustan Motors Ltd. (0.05%)

Based on SIAM figures

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Industry overview Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicle Manufacturers in India Total Domestic Sales + Exports -March 2013 31,176 Units Mahindra Navistar 1.29%

Others 0.39%

Asia Motor SML Works Isuzu 1.84% 3.49%

VECV - Eicher 12.44%

Tata Motors 49.45%

Ashok Leyland 31.10%

Others VECVs - Volvo (0.25%)

Volvo Buses India Pvt. Ltd. (0.14%)

Based on SIAM figures

www.motownindia.com

May 2013 / 97

Industry overview Auto Industry Overview

Total Domestic Sales + Exports - March 2013 17,16,804 Units

Commercial Vehicles 5.29% Three Wheelers 3.84%

Passenger Vehicles 17.98%

Two Wheelers 72.89%

98 / May 2013

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RNI No DEL ENG/2010/34562