Delphi-TVS Technologies, the joint venture of BorgWarner and TV Sundaram Iyengar & Sons, has reached the milestone of producing three million common rail injection systems (CRIS) at its facility in Oragadam, Chennai.
Beginning with the first batch of CRIS that was supplied to Tata Motors' Safari 3.0 L in 2009, the company hit the first million mark in six years, the second in five years and the third million in three years.
A Viswanathan, President of Delphi-TVS Technologies, told Mobility Outlook that the company would achieve the five-million-unit mark in the next two years. This will happen by venturing into new segments, including tractors, and betting big on overall industry growth.
“We are already supplying to almost all OEMs in India and will actively look at new customers, especially in the tractors segment. We will also grow with some new programmes of our existing customers,” he said. The company has earmarked investments of around INR 150 crore annually for the next three years.
According to Viswanathan, tractors need CRIS to comply with TREM 5 regulations which cover a wider range of engines, right from under 8kW to over 560 kW. The company is ready with its product offerings for tractor makers to meet these regulations scheduled to kick in less than a year from now and will encompass over 92% of tractors in the country.
Targeting New Customers
Viswanathan said this would be a huge opportunity for the company and would help it surpass the goal of five million CRIS in two years. Delphi-TVS is also in talks with customers to help them with these regulations while exploring business opportunities for CRIS in medium-duty commercial vehicles.
The company offers fuel injection systems and after-treatment solutions for cars, multi/sports-utility vehicles, light and medium-duty commercial vehicles, construction equipment, tractors, gensets and various small engines. In addition to CRIS, it also supplies rotary pumps where it has produced five million units so far.
B Viswanath, Chief Technology Officer, told this writer that the journey to achieving the three million milestone helped it become development/ manufacturing-ready for any new programmes. With the support of the Tech Centre in Mannur, about 40 km southwest of Chennai, and the state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Oragadam, it is gearing up for faster solutions.
Faster Adaptation
For instance, the transition from BS4 to BS6 involved two major changes – NOX after-treatment and containment of particulate matter — except that neither technology was available in 2017. Despite this, the BS6 vehicles were launched as planned in April 2020 thanks to the fact that “our people had the capability to absorb technologies” applicable for India.
“We have replicated this exercise going from Step 1 to 2 of BS6 though we had to counter the challenges triggered by COVID. In Europe, no OEMs ask suppliers if they can develop a new technology but merely tell them to do so. India is also getting into this mode,” said Viswanath.
These challenges helped the company develop the ability to absorb and adapt technologies for products and manufacturing. It is gearing up to meet customers’ needs faster — for instance, if the company starts working on any project for Step 2, it can deliver in less than two-thirds of the time it took earlier.
Truly Global
TK Balaji, Chairman and Managing Director, Delphi-TVS Technologies said making CRIS was both capital and technology-intensive. This explained why only three companies in the world make this product. Every piece of equipment in the plant is specially developed to make precision components for the CRIS.
'We offer state-of-the-art global technology coupled with Indian frugal engineering to optimise products for our customers. Our relevance to the Indian market with innovative and cost-effective solutions has helped customers choose Delphi-TVS Technologies and reach this milestone. It is a reminder that we need to continue delighting our customers with superior products,” Balaji added.
To a question on exports, Viswanathan said the company has been shipping out products to European and Korean OEMs for the last eight years of which Caterpillar and Renault are the big brands. In FY23, its exports contributed to about 15% of the top line.
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