Commercial vehicle axle specialist Meritor has been a long-term player in the Indian market, having stood firm during numerous past challenges in the industry. Dr. Muthukumar N, President & Whole-Time Director, Meritor India, tells us how it views the BS-VI challenge.
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Market impact
April 2020 will usher in a new chapter for the Indian automobile industry. However, there are numerous concerns arising from the present market scenario coupled with the challenges of moving to a different ecosystem. The OEMs are investing considerable resources on new technologies and the same is expected to impact the prices though the product performance might improve. It is not going to be easy for sure but if this means that the country will send a strong message to the world that it is serious about cleaning up the air, the effort will be well worth it. We are closely working with all our OE customers by providing the necessary offerings in terms of technology and new product launches to support them in BS-VI transition. Our recent new product launches and developments underway are aimed at customers gaining the best-in-class performance advantage with our products in their CVs.
Cost implications
Meritor is globally known for best-in-class products. Our engineering philosophy combined with the manufacturing excellence allows us to offer such best-in-class features in our products. Product that we offer for BS-VI configuration vehicles provide high value proposition such as power dense carrier design with higher torque to weight ratio & lower lubrication volume with reduced parasitic frictional losses thereby enhancing the axle efficiency thereby allowing fleet customer to absorb the increase. Both these factors provide long term benefits such as allowing more payload, higher fuel economy & reduced operating cost. As a result, our current range of axles, brakes & suspension in India help customers achieve most optimum total cost of ownership. We believe the cost impact due to migration to BS-VI in a way reinforces the importance of operating efficiency & uptime for the fleets.
Challenges
The increase in cost due to technology change to meet the BS-VI norms is likely to impact the consumer more than ever. This alone is the single most challenge the industry is expected to face in the near term. There is a great opportunity to innovate that comes along with this challenge. As the trucking industry moves closer to 100% rated load segment and this coupled with the speed of infrastructure development, it is time for the OEMs and various aggregate suppliers to look at optimizing their products not just from cost stand point but also to extend warranty & reduce downtime.
Opportunities
India is the first country in the world to go straight from BS-IV to BS-VI in a record time of three years. The most evident and long-term benefit should be the reduced emission levels and better air quality. Having said that, there still lies plenty of opportunity for improvement. India is set on a path to adapt electric vehicles. Between now and then, evolution of technology is key for sustaining growth in IC engine vehicle industry. India is historically a cost sensitive market and this can be another opportunity to bring innovation at lower cost. Continuous improvement but at much rapid pace seems to be the need of the hour.
Outlook
The industry is expected to pick up in the second half of the year owing to pre-buy of BS-IV vehicles. However, the quantum and timing of it is still not certain. The auto industry faced challenges due to various factors like higher fuel prices, high interest rates, liquidity crunch, low festive season sales, etc. The M&HCV segment in specific faced uncertainty and challenges posed in terms of axle load rating changes, liquidity bottlenecks, etc. These did affect the axle demand but our presence in diverse segments of the industry and exports business ensured that the business performance remained largely unaffected.