Global Tier-1 giant Aptiv, which undertook the expansion of its Chennai plant to support SDV and ADAS products for the Indian market, has today commissioned a new technical centre to focus on the development of future SDV solutions for the domestic market, with key OEMs such as Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) in its sight.
The new facility located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, will scale from housing around 300 engineers initially to over 500 engineers by 2026, and witness the development of AI/ML-powered ADAS solutions, in-cabin perception, as well as infotainment systems for the domestic market where it is already a key digital cockpit supplier to M&M for its models like the Mahindra XUV700.
Spread over an area of 34,000 square feet, the company’s latest technical centre was inaugurated by senior leaders from Aptiv and M&M, including R Velusamy, President, Automotive Business (Designate), M&M, in Chennai on August 18.
Representatives from the Irish-American technology major also included Javed Khan, EVP & President, Software, Advanced Safety and User Experience (AS&UX); Matthew Cole, SVP & President, Global AS&UX, and Arun Devraj, VP & MD, AS&UX, APAC (Non-China), Aptiv.
According to the Aptiv leadership, the company’s new technology centre is part of the overarching US$ 60 million (approximately Rs 525 crore) that it has committed over a period of three years starting 2024, wherein it invested US$ 45 million (approximately Rs 375 crore) in expanding its capacity for M&M at its Chennai plant. “Over a three-year period, our investment is about US$ 60 million which includes both the engineering centre as well as the manufacturing facility expansion,” Javed Khan, EVP & President, Software, AS&UX, Aptiv, told Autocar Professional.
The company says that the new engineering centre is focused on developing solutions ‘In India, For India,’ tailored for local OEMs. “It brings us closer to our customers, allows us to customise solutions for the Indian market, and signals the beginning of deeper investments as adoption of ADAS and user-experience technologies grows here,” Khan added.
While Aptiv has had a technical centre in India in Bengaluru for quite some time, the teams there have been more involved in building and enabling software for its global programmes, as per the company. “The shift that we are seeing right now is that our AS&UX solutions, earlier developed for global OEMs, are increasingly being adopted by our Indian customers. Following our model of co-locating engineering and manufacturing close to our customers, we launched a manufacturing facility in Chennai last year for a Mahindra programme. The natural extension was to also establish an engineering team there,” Khan explained the rationale behind the new R&D facility in Tamil Nadu.
Aptiv envisions an accelerated adoption of in-cabin technology in the Indian passenger vehicle segment, which is seeing an increasing number of models getting introduced with latest in digital cockpit solutions. “In-cabin technology is less safety critical and OEMs are keen to bring those features in. A lot of our early business in India has actually been on the UX front,” Khan pointed out.
In terms of ADAS penetration, the global major believes it is the Level-0 to Level-2 features that will see faster adoption in India. “ADAS adoption is still at an early stage in India, and globally, most systems today are at Level-0 through to Level-2 plus. Once we move beyond, the technology becomes expensive. In India, there is a long way to go, which also means a lot of opportunity. We are excited about our partnership with Mahindra and the investments here, because India is one of the few markets that offers a strong growth potential,” Khan added.