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Megatrends Navigate the heavily pot-holed track that leads off the Chennai highway to an industrial park on the outskirts of Oragadam, and you’ll find a low-roofed factory set in immaculately landscaped grounds. Here, Delphi-TVS manufactures complete diesel common rails, including filters, pumps, rails and injectors. The fruit of the close relationship begun by Lucas and TVS in 1961, Delphi-TVS has around 1,000 employees and a turnover of approximately Rs 1,000 crores (US$187.9m). At 52%, Delphi has the controlling share of the JV, which focuses on the development and production of diesel fuel injection equipment, and although a large percentage of its business is derived from car and light commercial vehicle common rail systems, it also supplies Bharat 5 (Euro V) common rail systems for 5.0 and 8.0-litre trucks. What’s interesting about this joint venture is that it illustrates what can happen when one of the largest global Tier One suppliers partners successfully with a major Indian automotive company - in this case, India’s largest. The TVS Group, which employs over 40,000 people worldwide and claims a turnover in excess of US$4bn, operates in a multitude of areas including motorcycles, car components, computer peripherals and heavy How a global Tier One found something in common (rail) with India’s largest supplier The well-established joint venture in India between Delphi and India’s TVS merges global technology with the market presence of a respected domestic automotive supplier. Megatrends spent a day with senior executives at Delphi-TVS to discuss how each party benefits from this joint venture Martin Kahl commercial vehicles as well as passenger car distribution, finance and insurance. The Delphi-TVS JV benefits both parties, with Delphi’s global technology, engineering capabilities and international reputation complemented by the local knowledge, reputation and market reach throughout India of TVS. Growth Delphi-TVS operates three plants, at Mannur and Oragadam near Chennai, and at Pant Nagar in Uttarakhand. Huge expansion is taking place at the Oragadam factory: two new manufacturing halls are being added to take the site’s total to The three cylinder Unit Pump Common Rail (UPCR) system was developed in India for smaller vehicles at the lower end of the market 11 Automotive World Megatrends magazine | www.automotiveworld.com Q1 2013
three, increasing the plant’s capacity significantly. This includes a doubling of the plant’s capacity for low-pressure carburising, the heat treatment coating technique which, whilst already employed by other companies, is used to unique effect by Delphi-TVS at Oragadam. Well protected from the dust and heat, manufacturing takes place in autonomous production units (APUs) where cleanliness and pinpoint accuracy are crucial. This is especially important for the production and assembly of the nozzles and injectors machined on-site. These parts play a crucial role in meeting the increased pressures that common rail systems need to operate under to meet Bharat IV. Common rail is of great interest and importance to the Indian market, where the growth of diesel has accelerated enormously in the last two years. While the political debate continues about whether or not the fuel should be subsidised, diesel car sales remain strong thanks to attractive pump prices which put diesel at around 30% cheaper than gasoline. Common rail is a good way to meet Bharat 4 and 5 (Euro 4 and 5) legislation, say experts at Delphi-TVS, and the NVH performance of diesel cars is almost as good as gasoline cars now, thanks again to common rail. Today, UPCR. Tomorrow, the world? As outlined later, this JV is best portrayed by a jointly-developed product, the Unit Pump Common Rail, or UPCR. The UPCR was developed in India by Delphi-TVS specifically for use in smaller, mainstream and lower-end emerging market vehicles. Intended for small three and four-wheeled vehicles with one to three-cylinder engines, it is a low-cost adaptation of Delphi’s advanced common rail technology, designed to meet Euro 4. The successful development, adaptation and commercialisation of the UPCR illustrates how India can be a driver of product development for other emerging markets around the world. T.K. Balaji, the Managing Director of Delphi-TVS Diesel Systems, agrees. “In the coming years, I definitely see India playing a role,” he says. “The Indian market is a highly value-conscious market. Affordability is critical here, so people are very price-conscious. In the passenger car industry, the small car segment dominates. The upper end segments are there but they're not Q1 2013 the dominant segment of the market. But the consumers are demanding the same kind of technologies and quality as you see in the high-end cars, so more and more innovations are likely to take place to make that happen. This could be a great opportunity for us.” This is where the JV can exploit the fact that one partner is a global supplier. “Delphi is able to deliver that. The case in point is the UPCR, which we developed together. That is now being developed further to supply to other markets.” The majority of Delphi-TVS production is sold in India, but with the expansion at the Oragadam plant, it is reasonable to expect the facility to be used for export. In the Indian market, the best business to be had is in the key, cost-sensitive mainstream A to C segments. Whilst Delphi-TVS needs to target these segments for the volume, is there an opportunity for the JV to also target premium models, as Delphi does in mature markets? “It is an evolution,” says Balaji. “One has to wait and see. It could happen. We are supplying in India identical products that are supplied in Europe. We are also developing innovative low cost products.” Engineering the engineers of tomorrow Although the potential may exist for India to be a leading source of product development for global emerging markets, the necessary infrastructure needs to be in place to produce engineers who can compete on an Megatrends Unit Pump Common Rail (UPCR) test bench international level. Does India have the appropriate systems in place? “That is a very interesting, perceptive question about India,” says Balaji. “If you go on the basis of what is in place now, and whether it could happen, you will never answer that question. “India is full of entrepreneurship. Take the software industry: over 20 years, it has transformed from nothing into a huge industry, not only creating significant value here but also globally. I think you can never say what will happen in the future based on what is there today. There's a great capacity here to execute. What we are not so good at still is developing breakthrough technologies. But we're very good at absorbing technology and implementing it in a lower-cost manner.” But Balaji remains hopeful that breakthrough technologies can come out of India. “I think it will happen one of these days,” he says. “When you have highly competitive forces at play, as we do in India, innovation has to thrive. Innovation becomes an intense competitive pressure where somebody has to do something different. So really all the ingredients are there for it; everybody is here and everybody is trying to get a share of the market. There's intense competition, and somebody will inevitably come up with innovative ideas. It's just a question of time.” And the development of emissions regulations offers opportunities to companies like Delphi- TVS, Balaji says. “Today India is at Euro IV. So we are just one generation behind Europe in terms of emissions standards. By 2020, I think we will be on a par [with Europe].” Automotive World Megatrends magazine | www.automotiveworld.com 12
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Page 5 and 6: More Safety, Less Costs. Voith Reta
Page 7 and 8: Those concepts are something that w
Page 9 and 10: For him, Bright Science means new w
Page 11: have demonstrated a 10.5% of fuel r
Page 16 and 17: Megatrends Picture a world in which
Page 18 and 19: automotive industry news analysis,
Page 20 and 21: Megatrends work we do with Shell in
Page 22 and 23: • Global Presence, Local Expertis
Page 24 and 25: Megatrends down. In the past we had
Page 27 and 28: P3 enables our clients to succeed i
Page 29 and 30: Wireless charging has long been the
Page 31 and 32: Q1 2013 The Halo effect Seeing the
Page 33 and 34: Engine - Multifunction Valve block
Page 35 and 36: Power cut: EV makers focus on post-
Page 37 and 38: with safety testing. At Thatcham we
Page 39 and 40: Autonomous emergency braking (AEB)
Page 41 and 42: volumes, the cost is going down, an
Page 43 and 44: CARS ARE PART OF OUR WAY OF LIFE. A
Page 45 and 46: What do you think have been the maj
Page 48 and 49: Megatrends Truck Transportation 203
Page 50 and 51: Megatrend 3: total fleet transparen
Page 52 and 53: Megatrends The US is becoming suffi
Page 54 and 55: © 2013 EYGM Limited. All Rights Re
Page 56: Megatrends plans to open up their A
Page 59 and 60: GHG emissions - something that does
Page 61 and 62: Bsquare Connected Automotive IVI So
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As vehicles age, the heat affected
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Industry viewpoint OEMs and dealers
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How do I control my fuel usage & co
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