'We are present in one of every four cars produced in India but we see there’s further upside potential to grow.'

Hans-Joachim Kuppel, Board Member and Chief Sales Officer, SEG Automotive, Germany, spoke to Kiran Bajad at the recent Auto Expo Components Show held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. 

What is SEG Automotive’s focus in India?
We have been present in India since the last 25 years, supplying our products and technologies to key OEMs. We want to further accelerate our growth in India with our existing products, which are starter motors and generators. With our innovation in this product, we already contribute to the CO2 reduction. We would have special focus on stop-start solutions which contribute to real-life conditions with 6-8 percent fuel economy improvement, and are an easy to install system with impressive impact. 

What is the market scenario in the starter motor and generator segment?
Our strength is in our global presence and India is an export hub, but we also cater to our Indian customers with local manufacturing. Therefore, we are a global supplier offering access to global OEMs. This is not only in production but in engineering, which is one of our core strengths and we are making a difference compared to some of our competitors.

You clearly want to grow faster in India. Which are the areas where you foresee this growth to come from?
Today, we are present in one of every four cars produced in India but we see there is further upside potential to grow. India is a fast-growing, global market in terms of vehicle production and we want to contribute to this growth. Lastly, increasing value in the start-stop system is more complex than the conventional starter; so we also want to contribute to this growth.

What is the contribution of the Indian business to SEG Automotive globally?
At present, India contributes 10 percent of our global turnover which was $1.7 billion in 2017; we expect this share can increase rapidly. We are pushing for growth and targets to grow faster than the market. India is growing faster than Europe and North America. Our India team is very ambitious to increase the country's share within the global network.

What are the localisation levels in India for your products?Our products in India — not only assembly but also sub-components — are highly localised. We have deep production depth and our customers in India also want local products. This is helping in reducing logistics cost and import but we also balance overall global capacities. Definitely, India is clearly one of our export locations.

Start-stop starter motor. 

Technologically, how you see starter motors for passenger cars and CVs evolving?
In both the segments, the requirements are different; for the CV market, we have quite specific and tough environmental requirements. Therefore, the innovation and R&D focus is to meet the requirements in terms of robustness and quality. More focus is on reducing CO2 emissions for passenger cars for start-stop systems. We expect the start-stop system also to come to commercial vehicles, especially for last-mile delivery, because long-distance trucks are not suitable for this technology.