Adient To Leverage Low Cost, Light-weighting Trends In Seats Production: Rajagopalan

Adient India, the largest global automotive seating supplier, and a front runner in building the ‘seats for tomorrow’ is offering full seating solutions, for the passenger and commercial vehicles. In India, Adient has 9 assembly plants, and over 11 customers. With 1500 employees, the largest seating tech centre in India established in 2000. Till date it has completed more than 60 programmes designed and launched locally. In a recent interaction Murali Rajagopalan, Director and Country Manager, Adient India told Ashish Bhatia about the company’s future plans and uniqueness of Adient. Edited excerpts:

- Ashish Bhatia

Q: What do you mean by the phrase ‘car seats for tomorrow’. What does it mean both in the global as well as the India context?

Rajagopalan: There is a very good consensus among the stakeholders on how the cars of the future should be. The only point of debate there is when? in case of autonomous cars etc. There is a very clear trend. The cars of the future are definitely going to be electrified, autonomous to various degrees, and will be used by many people and not just by a single owner. When it comes to future gazing, no company can have a clear answer. We as a company are working very closely with our customers who in turn are also trying to gaze the future. It is a joint effort to analyse the trends when it comes to building the ‘car seats for tomorrow’ ahead of the competition.

In India we are lagging as the market is yet to mature. Light-weighting is the immediate need in the Indian market as it has been tackled across the rest of the world. Take for instance, the Hyundai Motors Chennai plant, at the visitor’s lounge, one can find employee posters acknowledging their contribution in reducing weight by a margin of 15 grams. It is because light-weighting directly impacts fuel efficiency.

It is a definite trend in India, and Adient, being part of the heaviest component manufacturing, we are up for the challenge. Secondly, we see customisation as another trend developing in the country. India as a market is less homogenous than Europe and other countries. Lastly, on the type of vehicles, we see people moving from smaller vehicles to bigger SUV-type vehicles. All the 3 trends naturally have a bearing on the market for seats.

Q: Are there any flagship or popular products that have been classified at Adient as key market drivers for India?