Hella India Lighting Ltd. (HIL), one of the leading global manufacturers of automotive lighting & safety electrical products, is leveraging on its German-engineered products developed & built at local costs. The Indian arm of Hella KGaA Hueck & Co., which services CV and other Special Original Equipment (SOE) segments like off-highway vehicles, agricultural machinery, construction equipment and two-, three-wheelers, etc., is also exporting its locally made LEDs to developed countries such as the US, Singapore, Australia, Germany, UAE, etc. In addition to registering a recurrent double digit YOY growth, the company is now aspiring to contribute 10% reduction in road accidents in the country by 2020.
Interacting with MOTORINDIA, Mr. Ramashankar Pandey, Managing Director, Hella India Ltd., noted: “The Indian market is very important for us both from the OE and aftermarket perspectives. Despite recessionary headwinds in last few years, our confidence has not diminished. Although there was a downturn earlier, there is a sign of revival, especially in the commercial vehicle segment due to the speedy recovery of road construction projects. A lot of projects have been signed up for both Independent Aftermarket and Special OE segments. There are two reasons we are optimistic, one is the growing market size. With the aspiring middle class and increasing economic activities, people will buy more. Secondly, India is not an easy market, as the price points are so low that all Industry players are forced to innovate to meet cost targets. At Hella, where we are equipped with those frugally engineered modular products backed by a local application engineering team, we can apply it to Indian customer needs or elsewhere globally at local costs.”
Stressing upon the need for proper lighting, Mr. Pandey stated: “We want to bring path breaking technologies that will help in reducing road accidents. As a company, we have the vision to bring ‘Technology of tomorrow for the life of today on Indian roads’. One of the quintessential aspects that have yet not caught the imagination among the transport fraternity is the ‘Recognition’ of the moving traffic and objects on the road. Hence, lighting plays a critical role to ensure this crucial element of ‘recognition’ to avert any road mishaps. The bottomline is that it is indispensable to view (people and objects) and be viewed while driving on the road. We are of the notion that there should first be improved lighting and signaling systems for proper vision to avoid millions of accidents (in India) and then work on other safety measures which are also critically important.”
It may be recalled that Hella originally established itself in India in 1959 as a joint venture with JMA. The company works closely with local SOE customers such as Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, Volvo Eicher, Volvo Bus, Mahindra & Mahindra, Scania, JCB, Mercedes-Benz, SAME, CLAAS, ITL-Sonalika, Escorts and with Independent After Market (IAM) customers to develop and manufacture head lamps, auxiliary lamps, fog lamps, work lamps, day time running lamps with bulb & LED technology and various types of switches.
When quizzed about the potentialities for Aftermarket in the CV segment, Mr. Pandey revealed: “India has a huge vehicle parc and the retro fitment (of lights with LEDfication) is going on at an unprecedented scale. It is embraced by many big fleet operators. For example VRL’s LEDfication is around 100 vehicles a month because the lights are robust, maintenance-free and fit for life. LED signaling will be a standard practice for the HCV industry in the next couple of years. This will be followed by MCVs and LCVs. Going forward; it will be accepted both in the direct market and aftermarket channels.”