Visteon innovates for two-wheeler OEMs

Climate, interior, electronic and lighting product manufacturer Visteon India signaled its intentions to enter the fast growing two-wheeler market by conducting a technology demonstration recently in Chennai. Showcasing some production-ready products for what Visteon has labeled as the ‘growth market,’ the company also announced that it has conducted talks with various two-wheeler OEMs and that the response has been “exceptional”. The products were displayed on a technology demonstration motorcycle (a modified Hero Honda Glamour) designed and developed in India, in collaboration with 3M. Called the Growth Market Bike, the demo bike shows how technologies can be integrated to meet the preferences of riders and the cost and packaging requirements of two-wheeler OEMs in India — as well as in other rapidly growing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe and South America.

Customised innovations for growth market

The Growth Market Bike displayed some key innovations in the headlamp, tail-light and engine management system (EMS). These innovations are targeted at the mid-level (135/150cc) segment in the two-wheeler market.

A Vishwanathan, country managing director, said that the company has identified certain synergies between the two-wheeler and the four-wheeler markets. “Our prolonged presence in the four-wheeler market has, to a certain extent, made us aware of what the OEMs want. We saw opportunities in the growing two-wheeler market and we want to tap this,” he said.

Visteon already supplies electronics, instrument clusters and EMS to certain two-wheeler models in China. “So, it is not like we are fresh to this market. You could say we are now targeting the growth market,” Vishwanathan added. The company’s products are found in India in Honda’s recently launched CBR250. Harsha Raju, industrial designer, corporate innovation, at Visteon, explained some of the products that were displayed. Talking about the headlamp cluster, he said, “The cluster is a combination of high beam, low beam and day-light running lights. The high beam lamp is reflector-based, while the low beam lamp is a projector lamp.” Projector lamps are common in four-wheelers and are relatively new to the two-wheeler segment. In fact, only the Bajaj Pulsar 220 and the Kawasaki Ninja 650R contain projector lamps, at the moment. A key innovation by Visteon is on the tail-lights. “The rear light unit contains just four LEDs,” continued Raju. “There is one LED each for the two indicators, one for the brake light and another for the rear light as such,” he said. “For the entire rear light unit, we use a specially made thin sheet that is helpful in distributing the light uniformly. This sheet is manufactured by 3M,” Raju added. Moving to the instrument cluster, Raju said that this was an innovative product for Visteon. “This cluster is not only completely digital but we also use an LCD screen in the cluster. It consists of the usual rpm meter, odometer, ‘Neutral’ indicator and the fuel meter. In addition to this, we have added a warning light system. This system indicates certain warnings like ‘low oil’ for instance,” he said. The body control module takes care of all the functions that are listed above. “The body control module is usually placed under the seat. But our unit is so compact that it is found under the dash itself,” Raju said. “This saves on space, weight and the cost of wiring harnesses,” he said.

The company has also managed to make the EMS completely out of heat-resistant plastic. “The EMS consists of the ECU, throttle body, fuel injector and the fuel discharge assembly (this goes on the belly of the fuel tank)” Raju said. The heat-resistant plastic replaces the current trend of using aluminium and the entire assembly “increases efficiency by around five to seven percent.”

China exposure helps

Talking about the challenges faced during the development of the entire system, Vishwanathan said, “The space available in a two-wheeler is much less than that in a four-wheeler and we had to work around that. There is also a difference in cost expectations when it comes to a two-wheeler and our presence in China helped us understand this a bit.”

The company also said that it was very happy about the enthusiasm shown by some of the OEMs. Varadan Devanathan, country head, interiors and electronics product group, said that the response has been fantastic. “We already have a proven track record in the four-wheeler industry and the two-wheeler OEMs have been impressed with what we’ve showcased to them,” he said. Asked if the company has adequate manufacturing capabilities to take care of future orders in the two-wheeler segment, Devanathan said, “We’ll continue to expand our capacity based on the need. We’ve invested in this market and are committed to it. We already have facilities in the major automobile hubs in the country. So we just have to structure the manufacturing based on the location and the volumes when we receive the orders.”