Stating that it is extremely bullish on growth opportunities in the Indian automotive sector, DuPont is aiming to grow faster than the industry in the coming years, aided by its innovative offerings.
The US corporate giant seeks to emerge as a key solutions provider in the challenges the automobile industry will be facing and is stepping up its engagement with the industry. It has already started working with auto OEMs across passenger cars, commercial vehicles and two-wheeler segments in India. “We will be meeting about 150 people representing all leading OEMs in south India and discuss our offerings in the areas of lightweight, engine efficiency, bio fuel-based solution and electric mobility, among others,” H P Nanda, Director – Strategy and Growth Initiatives, E I Dupont India Pvt. Ltd., said.
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Among several focus areas, it intends to give a stronger thrust on offering its expertise to reduce the weight of the vehicles and thereby improve fuel efficiency besides enhancing performance and meeting emission norms.
“In vehicle oil pans, 30-50 per cent of weight reduction could be achieved by replacing metals with plastics. We intend to offer this solution to the OEMs that are currently chalking out their future vehicle programmes. These solutions could be considered in the design stage as it would be challenging to do such parts integration for the commercialised products and parts,” said Yasuhiko Ohashi, General Manager, DuPont India Innovation Center, Pune.
The company has also set up an application development centre (aka DuPont Knowledge Centre) in Hyderabad and employs about 450 people who develop solutions for both Indian and global markets.
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DuPont India’s total revenue is estimated at about a billion dollars. It gets about 10 per cent of the revenues from automotive segment. Globally, the company generates about $3 billion revenue annually from auto segment.