Valeo Lighting plans to treble capacity

Automotive lighting systems manufacturer, Valeo Lighting Systems India plans to treble its capacity in three years’ time to cater to the increasing demand from vehicle manufacturers. The company that commenced commercial production about three months ago with supplies to Nissan Motor India for the Micra will implement this capacity build-up in phases.

PR Dhaamodharan, Group national director (India) and managing director, Valeo Engineering Center, said it currently has an annual installed capacity of 250,000 sets (headlamps and rear lamps). The first phase of expansion will be taken up in 2011 followed by the second in 2012. Once completed, installed capacity will reach about 750,000 units per year.

Valeo has a manufacturing plant in Vallakkottai, near Sriperumbudur, and this being the introduction of Valeo’s lighting systems in India, the company plans to expand its customer base and the capacity too. Valeo’s products include headlamps, rear lamps and fog lamps.

Dhaamodharan said, “We are a global player in lighting and it is, therefore, appropriate for us to set up our own manufacturing unit to cater to Indian customers' need, including existing ones. While the products and tooling were developed by Valeo in China, which is a second-source country for us, we are also in the process of enhancing our local R&D capabilities.” By 2011, Valeo hopes to have in place a fairly self- sufficient local R&D team to interface with local and specific Indian applications.

“We are capable of designing the products and processes by incorporating all the vital aesthetic and ergonomic factors. Vehicle styling and aesthetics are among the major draws for vehicle owners and the lighting element plays a vital role. Independent surveys have shown that the design of the lighting systems count for 25 percent in the perception of a new car design. From a customer’s perspective, it has also been proven that style is a major factor in buying for more than 50 percent of car buyers. Due to this Valeo works on technologies which offer stylists opportunities to create aesthetic designs. With Valeo’s LEDs solution, we can even work on the lit appearance of headlamps offering cars a lit brand signature at night”, he said.

As regards increasing its customer base, Dhaamodharan said, “Our objective is to increase our local marketshare to match that of Valeo Lighting Systems globally. To achieve this, we will need to add more capacities in all the automotive clusters in India and actively get business from new customers. The reason for setting up many of our divisions near Chennai is to be closer to our customers in South India. In Chennai, OEM capacity is more than a million units,” he added.

Meanwhile, Valeo Lighting Systems has developed technology for front lighting that encompasses the three source technologies – Halogen, Xenon and LEDs. With its NEO (New Efficient Optics), a hybrid technology between reflector and projector, Valeo has raised the performances of halogen-based solution. BeamAtic Premium Xenon, Valeo’s Xenon Glare-Free High Beam, is now in production and offers end-users the ability to drive permanently in high beam without 'glaring' other drivers on the road.

With the new BeamAtic Premium automatic adaptive lighting system, maximum light is maintained everywhere except in the zone where the other vehicle is located. Visibility is therefore, comparable to high beam, and other drivers are not dazzled. Automatic switching between high and low beams also improves driving comfort and safety. With a range of more than 100 metres, they offer a 30 percent improvement on traditional headlamps.

Finally, to prepare for the coming of LED, Valeo has developed a range of LED lighting technologies adapted to all level of lighting equipments. For rear lighting, Valeo together with its alliance partners is developing new LED technologies which offer compact, stylish, cost- effective solutions and significantly reduce the energy consumption of headlamps. Light guides, surface treatments, and smart metallisation are some of the technologies used to produce attractive appearance while optimising optic efficiency. Globally Valeo Lighting Systems along with its alliance partners is the market leader in its field. Last year at a Group level, including all activities, Valeo recorded a turnover of 7.5 billion euros.