Mahindra Sona Ltd. (MSL) is one of India’s leading suppliers of auto ancillary products such as propeller shafts, clutches, universal joint kits, steering joints, steering column parts and axle shafts, catering to the needs of almost all UV and CV OEMs in the country, apart from serving customers in the construction equipment (CE) segment and some Tier-I suppliers.
The company’s products are globally well accepted by OEMs in North America and are OE-fitted in some Class 6 and Class 8 trucks and construction vehicles in the continent. Given its strong presence in the US market, the next natural step for MSL was to try and expand its presence in Europe and other global markets, which is why it participated in IAA last year.
Mr. Gaurav Motwane, Managing Director, Mahindra Sona Ltd., shared: “We would like to build our export presence, Make-in-India and supply to Europe and other parts of the globe. Exports already contribute to more than 20 per cent of our business, but Europe offers tremendous potential, which is why we participated in IAA. We are also looking at markets like Indonesia for M&HCVs and Iran for UVs and LCVs.”
While MSL works with almost all top players in the domestic CV space, it also supplies to CE makers Terex and JCB in Europe. “We make close to 2,000 propeller shafts per day and cater to all the OEMs – Mahindra, Force Motors, Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, SML Isuzu and Volvo-Eicher. In Europe, we supply fully-built up shafts to Terex, fully-built up shafts, steering components and rubber couplings to JCB and also offer the products in the aftermarket”, said Mr. Ranjit Vadhavkar, Senior Vice President, Mahindra Sona Ltd.
MSL has technical collaboration with IFA-Rotorion of Germany, the world leader in drive shafts for light vehicles, and with Hyolim of Korea for heavy-duty shafts. The company has manufacturing facilities at Nasik and Pithampur, including one of the most advanced R&D and testing facilities in the country for propeller shafts and clutches at the former plant.
“Our validation and testing capabilities is a big advantage we deliver to our customers. We can perform the testing in a few weeks while it might take our customers much longer, so they look at us as one of their partners as we give a comprehensive solution. While we receive inputs from our collaborators, we work on the product design to suit Indian road conditions and validate them on our test rigs. We have been accepted by all the OEMs and will continue to build on our product and process capabilities”, explained Mr. Motwane.