Motherson has extended its cooperation with Marelli Automotive Lighting (Marelli) for a new toolroom in India. This will be the first-of-its-kind tool room in India dedicated to specific lighting applications.

The toolroom will be an extension of the existing joint venture company Marelli Motherson Automotive Lighting India, the 50/50 JV set up in 2008 to address the Indian exterior lighting market. MMLI is one of the largest suppliers of premium and LED exterior lighting in India for passenger cars. Its current presence is across the key automotive clusters in India with 4 production facilities and a dedicated engineering centre.

The new toolroom will localise tools for the domestic market (previously imported), specific for the lighting domain, that were previously imported, enhancing Motherson’s local capabilities. With the additional capabilities in tooling, Motherson’s manufacturing and existing tooling competence combined with the technical know-how of Marelli will result in high precision and aesthetical automotive lighting products. The new toolroom, which will be based in Delhi Region (Noida,) India, is slated to begin production in Q2 FY23.

Commenting on this partnership, Vivek Chaand Sehgal, Chairman, Motherson said, “We are delighted to meet this long-standing request from our customers. The need to be locally present for complete applications has never been more relevant in the context of the automotive industry. We are sure that with the continued support of Marelli, this tooling capability for automotive lighting will help us in delivering solutions to the present and future requirements of our customers in India.”

Sylvain Dubois, CEO of Marelli’s Automotive Lighting division said: “We are glad to make available to the JV the Marelli Automotive Lighting competences for high precision and high aesthetical tools, that will be transferred with a strong attention to the local team, for a flawless launch from the first tool manufactured. Enabling excellence and quality aimed at customers will be the mission also of the new tool room and further opportunities will arise from the synergies with the other 3 Automotive Lighting tool rooms in the other regions.”