Allison Transmission well-poised for sustained growth in India

Whether it’s up cycle or down cycle in the market, Allison Transmission stays focused on improving the performance of its offerings, constantly innovating and developing new products and value-added solutions for its customers. From an India perspective, Allison was doing just that during the recent slowdown in the country’s commercial vehicle industry. With the CV segment showing signs of recovery, Allison, as a result of a lot of efforts made during the downturn, appears to be well positioned to cater to the expected rise in demand for automatics in the coming days. We spoke to Mr. Lawrence A. Love, Executive Director – Global Marketing, to get an update on the company’s business in India, future plans for the market, and more.

Allison, the world’s largest manufacturer of fully automatic transmissions for medium- and heavy-duty commercial vehicles and hybrid-propulsion systems for city-buses, has shown great commitment to the Indian market in the last decade with full-fledged manufacturing operations in Chennai. Its Chennai facility has been manufacturing high-quality precision vehicular drive train components since four years, some of which are shipped to its other two global plants – one in the US and the other in Hungary – while it has also served as a transmission customization center for almost three years. The plant started producing the Allison 1000 and 2000 Series transmissions in mid-2012, becoming the only facility outside of its headquarters at Indianapolis, to make the product.

Having opened its Indian facility in 2010, Allison Transmission seems to have set a very good example of falling in line with the ‘Make-in-India’ programme catering to a number of neighboring global markets, in addition to taking care of the requirements of domestic customers.

Talking about the Indian facility, Mr. Love says: “We produce our 1000 and 2000 Series transmissions at Chennai which are also delivered to our global customers around the region. The facility has given us a good opportunity to get closer to our customers by using India as a base for our operations. We have brought many of our customers, from countries like Japan and Korea, to visit the plant, in order to showcase our capabilities. They have given exceptional marks to Allison for our processes and professionalism which has been a good experience for us all.”

Focus on bus segment

Allison has been primarily focusing on the bus segment in India which depends a lot on government funding. With the new government promising much for areas such as infrastructure development and streamlining public transportation across the country, Allison seems well positioned to cater to the expected growth in demand for automatics in buses, more so following its recent entry into the highly dominant front engine bus segment.

“We are well-positioned with the different vehicle OEMs that when one of them needs an automatic transmission we will be able to deliver the best solution for their needs. Having offered solutions only for rear engine buses in India, we have now developed a transmission solution for front engine buses, which helps us give our customers a new experience. We feel positive about the market and have positioned ourselves to grow well in the future”, adds Mr. Love.

Allison started off by targeting the bus segment in India and later expanded its focus to the off-highway and mining segments where its transmissions can be found on Tata Prima tippers and BEML trucks, among others. Though the Indian mining segment has been badly hit in the last couple of years, Allison preferred to focus on preparing for brighter days ahead instead of lying low during the period.

Asked about how Allison tackled the dip in the mining segment, he replies: “All markets are cyclical in nature. Whether the market is up or down, we just focus on working with the OEMs and our customers, because we want to make sure we are ready when things get better. When the market was down, we’ve been doing a lot of work to ensure we are ready, and as more vehicles get back into the mines and on roads, we will have the right products to offer. It also provides us an opportunity on parts sales for service and preventive maintenance for which our service network across India is fully geared.”

Allison is also entering other niche segments like fire trucks and has bagged orders from some of the fire and rescue corporations in the country, while the increasingly popular topic of BRT systems is another area of interest for the company.

Having started with a breakthrough order for Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) buses, Allison automatics have spread to many other parts of the country, with a growing base of customers experiencing its advantages such as better fuel economy and lower total cost of operation, which can only get better with the new fifth-generation features introduced recently by the company globally.

Commenting on the long-term prospects of Allison in India, Mr. Love concludes: “We will continue to deliver excellent products to our customers and support them with driver training and a lot more, so that they are comfortable. If we do it right, we will certainly be part of their specs for the long term, because once customers try our automatics, very rarely do they step back to manuals or AMTs.”