With safety norms tightening and ADAS moving mainstream, Valeo bets big on India as the next hub for intelligent mobility.
16 Sep 2025 | 2156 Views | By Ketan Thakkar
India’s regulatory landscape is rewriting mobility rules — not just in terms of volumes, but also in the features vehicles now carry. With new safety norms set to mandate advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as emergency braking, drowsiness detection, and lane departure warnings in passenger vehicles from 2026, and ...
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India’s regulatory landscape is rewriting mobility rules — not just in terms of volumes, but also in the features vehicles now carry. With new safety norms set to mandate advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) such as emergency braking, drowsiness detection, and lane departure warnings in passenger vehicles from 2026, and the Bharat NCAP program now factoring “Safety Assist Technologies” into its star ratings, the industry is being pushed to accelerate the featurisation of safety and driver-assist technologies.
This is the inflection point for Marc Vrecko, CEO of Valeo’s Brain Division and Group Executive Vice President of Valeo. “If you look at Tata, Mahindra or Maruti, the vehicles and features are catching up with the best globally,” he told Autocar Professional in an exclusive interaction at the IAA Mobility Show 2025 in Munich.
India is the world’s third-largest passenger vehicle market with sales of 4.3 million units in FY2025, and the world’s largest two-wheeler market with 19.5 million units sold. Although ADAS penetration is still nascent, the regulatory push and consumer aspirations force automakers to mainstream driver-assist and safety features beyond premium segments. The country is moving from basic airbags and ABS to advanced features such as parking assist, driver monitoring, and emergency braking — signaling a new phase of technology-led featurisation.
Valeo is positioning itself at the center of this transformation. The Sanand, Gujarat facility has become a cornerstone of the Brain Division’s manufacturing base, producing ultrasonic sensors that enable parking assist and ADAS functions. In 2023, the site doubled its capacity, expanding from about 3 million to nearly 7 million units annually, with advanced quality systems such as QR-code traceability, thermal testing and product audit labs — essential for mass adoption of safety-critical technologies.
On the engineering side, the Chennai R&D center has evolved into a global hub for Valeo Brain. “Chennai today is one of our core global R&D centers, not only for India but also for Asia outside China,” Vrecko said. Thousands of engineers here are developing embedded software, vision systems, functional safety designs, and simulation models that feed into the Brain Division’s ADAS and interior experience programs worldwide.
For suppliers like Valeo, India is not just a volume-driven market — it is a test bed for making safety and driver-assist features affordable and scalable. If engineered and manufactured to meet India’s price-sensitive conditions, they can be deployed across other emerging economies.
The rising integration of ADAS features also depends on robust supply chains. Vrecko recalled the lessons of the semiconductor crisis: “We were the only Tier-1 supplier that did not cause customer losses. We had issues, but we managed them. That resilience is something we are building into India as well.”
For Valeo, this convergence of regulations, consumer aspirations, and supply chain readiness comes at the right moment. “Europe is declining, the US is hesitant, China is stabilizing, but India is growing — and fast,” Vrecko observed.
The push towards featurisation is already visible. Automakers are integrating ADAS features such as 360-degree cameras, parking assist, driver alert systems, and connected safety technologies in mid-segment vehicles that would have been restricted to premium models earlier. This trend is expected to accelerate as Bharat NCAP makes safety a consumer decision factor.
“We trust our Indian teams. They will make it happen. Targets are given,” Vrecko added, underscoring that Valeo has confidence in its local talent to deliver this technology shift.
For Valeo’s Brain Division, India is now simultaneously:
A regulation-led growth market where ADAS and safety features are moving into the mainstream.
A resilient industrial base, anchored by Sanand’s scaled-up sensor production.
A global R&D hub, with Chennai shaping the future of intelligent mobility.
These shifts show why Vrecko believes India has entered a new league in global mobility — one defined by the growing featurisation of ADAS.