Premium product lines to drive Spark Minda’s future growth

Noida-based Spark Minda Group which has registered strong growth of about 25-28 percent in Q2 of FY22-23 in its domestic business is eyeing revenues multiplying in the coming years with the premiumisation of various product lines it offers.

The Group’s flagship company — Minda Corporation — is currently adapting to the rapid transformation in the automotive industry and is focusing on technology and innovation particularly in electronics. Electronic is expected to form the foundation of its vision of becoming a full-systems solutions provider from a traditional components supplier.

The company sees premiumisation of its key product lines such as locks for two- and four-wheelers, door handles as well as instrument clusters for passenger vehicles giving a fillip to revenues in the coming years. As per the Group, while the traditional mechanical key is increasingly giving way to a keyless-entry key fob system in both passenger cars and two-wheelers, it is also seeing significant innovation in the form of remote, mobile-based vehicle accessibility solutions getting developed.

Similarly, the analogue driver instrument cluster is transformed into a full-digital unit that displays myriad vehicle attributes by getting integrated with the vehicle body-control module to tap into critical vehicle information from a driver’s standpoint.

Minda Corporation’s kit value-per OEM is expected to grow by 1.2 to 1.3 times in the near future, therefore driving its revenue stream, and the company’s latest high-technology components are already seeing application in various vehicles, for instance, the new Vida V1 electric scooter by Hero MotoCorp as well as the Ola S1 and S1 Pro e-scooters coming equipped with Minda’s smart, remote-technology based locks which have been completely designed and developed in-house at the company’s R&D centres in Pune and Bengaluru and have 21 patents to their credit. The solution is also being exported to Italy’s Piaggio since the last three years.

“Technology and innovation are going to be our key focus areas as we increasingly look at premiumisation of our products and also add more electronics-based offerings in our portfolio,” Aakash Minda, executive director, Spark Minda Group told Autocar Professional in an exclusive conversation.

To augment its electronics capabilities, the company has recently entered a few JVs like that with Korea’s DaesungEltec for localised ADAS solutions for both two- and four-wheelers, Korea’s Infac for in-built GPS micro-antennae solutions, Gurgaon-based Loconav to offer full-stack vehicle telematics solutions for various vehicle segments and has also acquired 26 percent stake in Bengaluru-based EV charging solutions provider EVQPoint.

“We have also expanded our facilities in terms of electronics manufacturing, as well as the testing and validation capabilities. We are strengthening our teams on the technology and innovation front and have started a styling studio at our design centre where engineers are focusing on premiumisation of our products in terms of their styling, surface finishing, personalisation, and individualisation as per customer requirements,” Minda added. While the company intends to democratise ADAS features starting with cost-effective around-view monitors (360-degree cameras) in the mid-level cars such as B- and C-segment passenger vehicles by FY25-26, Minda Corporation is also focusing on EV components in the up to 3kW, and up to three-wheeler vehicle categories, and is supplying DC-DC convertors, motor controllers, battery management systems and chargers to various OEMs in the two- and three-wheeler categories.

To strengthen its ground on new technologies, the company is also stepping up its R&D focus and is expanding its capabilities at its two technical centres in Pune and Bengaluru while its R&D investments are currently pegged at two percent of its annual turnover.

This feature was first published in Autocar Professional's March 1, 2023 issue.