40 | AutoPartsAsia | NOVEMBER 2017take about a week or more. Now
some of the fleets deliver in less
than 48 hours. E-commerce industry
works on 24/7 model, with the
concept of driver relays to maintain
higher speed; it is like bringing air
transport on to the road. Since the
turnaround time is much faster,
fleets that operates at higher speeds
would certainly be interested in a
system that can prevent accidents;
this is because their fundamental
model is built around the driver; in
the relay model the driver comes
back home every day.
With the introduction of GST in
India, the hub-and-spoke model
would move more rapidly, inter-city
travel would be faster with heavy
duty transport travelling at higher
speeds with more power. The
company expects that even before
safety regulations come there will be
pressure on fleet owners and global
companies setting up operations
in India to opt for ESC. “We believe
quite a few segments would see
value in this; we will definitely
offer it at an affordable price,” the
Managing Director said
The Indian arm will continue to
import electronics till volumes reach
a certain level but will continue to
make other mechanical parts locally.
“We are always trying to drive
costs down to get more volume.
An additional line is required in our
facility. For this we have to make
only a few assemblies and we
need to localise. We have alreadylocalised ABS in India; we have
developed a very good source.
When the market moves to ESC we
will take an appropriate decision
based on volumes and projections,”
Kaniappan added.
Globally WABCO touched close to
USD three billion in revenue last
year. Headquartered in Brussels,
Belgium, the company has 13,000
employees in 40 countries. Europe’s
contribution to the revenue has
come down to almost 50 percent
from 85-90 percent a decade ago.
Asia contributes one fourth of the
revenue and is growing very fast.
The US represents only 14 percent
of the total business which is
expected to increase to 25 percent
as it has acquired two businesses
there last month.The Indian arm, which started off
as a manufacturer of mechanical
products and got into electronic and
related sub-systems, has added
technologically evolved products
and systems like ABS, ADAS, etc to
its portfolio. It is now incorporating
digitalisation and the opportunities
brought by it. It is moving towards
fleet management solutions and
telematics with access to the world
of big data.India is becoming an important
contributor to Wabco’s global
operations as the export to
developed market from India is
growing. Actuators designed and
manufactured in India are exportedto developed markets like Europe
and the US. Air suspension systems,
for a few customers in Europe,
vacuum pumps, and clutch servos
are some of the products where
responsibility of the global product
line has been shifted from Europe to
India.
India is the second tier of global
source of value for WABCO group.
Last year the company exported
components and systems worth
about Rs 550 crore. Almost one
third of the group’s employees
worldwide, including the same
number of engineers, are from India,
and this number is growing fast. The
company has five factories in the
country to serve the local markets
and reported Rs 2,103 crore in sales
in FY 2016-17. It has the capacity
to produce close to 45,000 systems
a month in India, utilising about 85
percent of capacity. The company
claims that despite short-term
hiccups such as implementation
of the Goods and Services Tax
which impacted vehicle sales, some
positive trends in the market over
the last three months are indicating
towards increasing volumes.
The company is looking to enhance
localisation. It has lengthened its
test track, invested more resources
on engineering and extended its
plants in India. It is enhancing
engineering capabilities to be the
spearhead of the drive to new
technologies, autonomous driving,
connectivity and electrification.SPECIAL REPORT