Looking back at the history, he said: “It was about 31 years ago, in 1978, that I first went to Troy in Michigan to meet Rockwell International which later came to be known as ArvinMeritor. We set up a small facility in Mysore by transplanting an existing plant out of Melbourne, Australia, with an investment of $4 million and started production by early 1980s. We were hoping that the Indian truck market would change and would move towards more global products, with higher payloads, higher engine capacity and torque. We were right in our approach, but were probably 10 years early in the marketplace”.
The initial phase of the JV was really trying and challenging. But it also provided the advantage of understanding the market by working very closely with customers like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland at that time and many others in later years by developing a whole series of products which completely redefined the Indian truck market in the 1980s and 1990s.
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that ArvinMeritor played a fairly significant role in redefining the direction that the Indian truck industry took. The introduction of 6X2, 6X4 and the multi-axle trucks was made possible due to the product design and engineering support provided by the JV to customers.
Post-liberalisation in the 1990s saw very rapid increase in business and this JV getting into a fairly significant position in the Indian truck industry. Supplying almost to every segment of the truck industry – LCVs, MCVs, HCVs and military vehicles – and this was all possible because of the high level of technology product capability that came out of ArvinMeritor’s product range and tremendous received from the engineering center in Troy.
Mr. Kalyani observed: “We set up a small design and engineering center in Mysore years back, and today, looking at the new center in Bangalore, I am extremely delighted. This center will not only meet the needs of the customers in the Indian market but will also help us integrate the product we make here on a global basis. Today if we look around, the whole world needs a common product, platform and technology. There is tremendous amount of convergence taking place irrespective of the geographies you operate in. The truck industry which is our primary customer is becoming global. We see from every OEM global trucks coming up. We have convergence coming from end products. Our experience working with ArvinMeritor and Rockwell has been extremely good and very satisfying. It is one of the most successful JVs in the manufacturing business in India. I must also mention that in 1978 when we formed this JV it was perhaps one of the earliest US-based companies in the manufacturing and automotive sector. We have come a long way and grown into a much bigger company with a diversified product range”.
Apart from commercial vehicles the focus is on the off-highway segment as well. This is a good step to diversify using the same technology platform and processes. Clearly the Indian technical center will provide a lot of support in making this happen.
