Visteon Corporation has drawn up plans to more than double both revenue and headcount at its Indian operation, said president and CEO Sachin Lawande. The company also plans to set up a display panel unit, he added.
The global player in the automotive ‘cockpit’ electronics space is also planning to ramp up the localisation level from the current 15% to 50% over the next few years. It is also scouting for a place to set up its second unit in the country.
“This year, we are planning to invest $20 million to set up a display panel facility adjacent to the existing plant in Chennai. This will be the third plant after Portugal and Mexico to make one million units each globally. It would become operational by mid-2023,” said Sachin Lawande, president and CEO, speaking to reporters on his visit to the city.
Asserting that the company aimed to reach turnover of $500 million from Indian operations by 2027 - compared with $180 million recorded in 2021 - he said that the company had an order book of $5 billion for cockpit equipment alone.
According to him, the technical and manufacturing teams in India play a key role in developing and advancing cockpit electronics technologies such as AI, deep machine learning and cybersecurity.
Further, to increase its production capacity, Visteon proposes to double the Indian workforce to 3,000. It has technical centres at Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Goa and new ones are coming up at Coimbatore and Thiruvananthapuram.
“Our growth is spurred by the ideas, innovation and commitment of our 2,000 employees, of whom 1,500 are engineers. Very soon, we will be recruiting talent in Hyderabad and Kolkata. We are hiring young talent from educational institutions in Goa,” he said.
On electric vehicles, he said the firm was working with original equipment manufacturers to develop digital entertainment systems for two-wheelers and with multiple OEMs for their battery management systems.
Asked about the second plant in India, he said that the company could manage with exissting capacity till it reached turnover of $400-500 million. Thereafter, a second plant would be needed. A formal announcement will be made early next year, he said.
