As demand for in-car infotainment touchscreens and digital instrument clusters grows in the coming years, American Tier-I major Visteon is preparing itself to cater to the market requirements in India.

The company, which recently opened a new technology centre in Goa, said it is expanding its manufacturing capabilities to do local optical bonding in the country. “We are planning to expand our manufacturing facility in Chennai to do local optical bonding which is the capability to take the displays and embed the lenses on it to manufacture the final product,” says Qais Sharif, (pictured) vice president, Display Product Line, Visteon.

“The new building is complete, and we plan to start finalising the clean rooms and install equipment. We plan to be in ramp-up production mode by mid-2023, and our initial plan is to produce about one million display panels every year,” he adds.

While these display panels will initially be meant for the Indian market, Sharif says there could be potential exports out of the country should there be capacity available as India is the only fourth destination after Japan, Mexico and Europe to have the bonding technology that remains the core of all Visteon displays globally. There is also the likelihood of further capacity expansion depending upon market growth.

“The Indian market is evolving very quickly and is fast adopting digital cockpits. We are partners with some of the key OEMs in India for their digital cockpits of the future. We see growing demand for larger displays, or implementation of multiple displays in a single vehicle becoming a future trend,” said Sharif. “Therefore, we are expanding our India capabilities to support the total market that we see.”

More tech centres
After its technology centres in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and more in recently – Goa, inaugurated on June 4, Sharif said Visteon is planning two more tech centres as part of its India expansion plans. “We are investing in India and developing more talent,” he says.

While the Goa tech centre will have 50 engineers focused on developing advanced technologies in the areas of cybersecurity, Android-based infotainment systems, AUTOSAR, driver awareness systems and autonomous vehicle solutions, the company has a bevy of hardware, software, mechanical, display and optics engineers working on global projects.

“We have been focused on growing our India capabilities not only to address the domestic market, but our India teams are supporting global applications,” Sharif signs off.