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MOTORINDIA
l
March 2012
81
ing global provider of product inno-
vation, engineering solutions, clean
technology and strategic consulting.
The Indian market accounts for five
per cent of Ricardo’s global rev-
enues and is one of the fastest grow-
ing markets for the company. The
company is also keen on working
with leading vehicle and component
manufacturers in India.
With hybrid technology gaining
popularity in the Indian market,
Ricardo is keenly interested in pro-
viding solutions to Indian manufac-
turers in order to hasten growth of
the automotive industry.
With its already strong presence
in engines manufacturing, Cooper
has made a foray into the automo-
bile sector by designing and manu-
facturing commercial vehicles with
payloads ranging from one tonne to
40 tonnes.
Mr. Farrokh N. Cooper, Chairman
and Managing Director, said: “The
future in the Indian market is very
good. There is demand for power
and the auto sector is booming. We
are coming up with our own auto-
mobiles with our own engines in 18
months.”
The company has plans to intro-
duce small four-wheeler light com-
mercial vehicle (LCV) powered by
an indigenously developed engine.
The new vehicle would be posi-
tioned as a rural transport vehicle, an enhanced alternative to the con-
ventional three-wheeler goods car-
rier in India. Further, it would gain-
fully compete with the existing and
proposed small LCV four-wheeler
offerings in India and abroad.
This diversification into the auto-
motive business follows a detailed
techno-economic study backed by
a market survey of the small LCV
market in India. Mini vans and bus-
es are also probable products for the
future.
w
Component zone
Mr. Farrokh N. Cooper with the company products
“We are coming up with our own
automobiles with our own en-
gines in 18 months.”
– Mr. Farrokh N. Cooper