Interview: Uno Minda’s Vivek Jindal

Last updated on 13 septembre 2024

By Paul-Henri MATHA

Vivek Jindal serves as a Whole-Time Director at Uno Minda and CEO of that company’s Lighting & Acoustics Systems domain. He is also a Director at Minda Westport Technologies and Minda Onkyo India. Additionally, he serves as a Director at Clarton Horns Spain and Mexico, where he successfully facilitated the merger and acquisition of the Spanish entity into Uno Minda. He is the northern-region chair of ACMA, that is India’s Automotive Component Manufacturers association.

Mr. Jindal has 19 years’ experience in the automotive industry, and leads the electric and hybrid vehicle initiatives for the Uno Minda Group. He studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology’s Delhi campus; got his MBA from the Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh, and has undertaken an Executive MBA programme at Harvard Business School.

DVN: Can you tell us about ACMA?

Vivek Jindal: The Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), with over 950 members, stands as the premiere industry association representing India’s burgeoning automotive component manufacturing sector. Established in 1978, ACMA has evolved into a formidable force, driving the growth and development of the component industry.

ACMA plays a pivotal role in shaping the industry’s trajectory. Its core functions encompass a wide spectrum of activities aimed at fostering a conducive business environment for auto component manufacturers.

Through proactive policy advocacy, ACMA engages with government bodies to address industry challenges, streamline regulations, and promote favourable policies. The association serves as a knowledge repository providing industry insights, market intelligence, and technical expertise to its members. ACMA plays a critical role in advancing India’s automotive industry by promoting trade, enhancing technology, improving quality, and disseminating information. The association participates in international trade fairs, sends trade delegations abroad, and publishes industry materials. They also contribute to manufacturing excellence through skills training, mentoring programs, and initiatives like ‘Asset Turnover Improvement,’ ‘Uptime Improvement,’ ‘Zero Defect Quality,’ and ‘Sustainable Manufacturing.’ It is actively involved in various government panels, committees, and councils to influence policies and regulations.

ACMA’s commitment to innovation and technology is evident in initiatives to promote research and development. By facilitating collaborations between industry, academia, and research institutions, the association drives technological advancements in the component manufacturing sector. ACMA undertakes various skill development programs to enhance the workforce’s capabilities, ensuring the industry remains at the forefront of global competitiveness.

ACMA is accelerating India’s auto component ecosystem by:

  • Acting as a catalyst in enhancing growth & evolution of the Indian auto component industry
  • Formulating innovative solutions for creating resilient & robust business models for auto component suppliers
  • Advocating for developmental policies pertaining to the Indian auto component industry at national and international levels
  • Fostering development of a skilled workforce through innovative capacity- and capability-building measures for sustaining current and future requirements
  • Globally promoting auto components made in India
  • Nucleating R&D orientation and efforts for generation of Indian IP
  • Creating an environment of responsible corporate culture and behaviour among member organizations

DVN: And what can you tell us about Uno Minda?

Vivek Jindal : Uno Minda, founded in 1958, are a tier-1 manufacturer and supplier of innovative automotive solutions and systems to automakers. We design and manufacture over 20 categories of components and systems for vehicles across all segments—passenger cars, commercial vehicles, two- and three-wheelers—catering to both combustion engines and electric/hybrid vehicles.

Minda are one of the leading manufacturers of automotive switching, lighting, acoustics, and seating systems, and alloy wheels. We have a leading position in India in almost all the products we manufacture. Technology and innovation are the two strong pillars of the organization, on the basis of which we have continued to lead the emerging trends in the automotive sector, over the past six decades.

The Group are globally active in the automotive sector, with 74 manufacturing facilities in India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Germany, Spain, and Mexico, as well as 37 R&D and engineering centres in India, Germany, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, and Spain. We have 19 joint ventures and technical agreements with world-renowned manufacturers from Germany, Japan, Korea, and China.

Uno Minda started manufacturing automotive lights in 1980. Since then the company have emerged as a leading automotive lamp manufacturer in India, renowned for our commitment to developing cutting-edge yet affordable lighting solutions. We have cultivated a strong market presence through a strategic focus on LED technology, particularly within the two-wheeler segment. Today, the lighting business contributes around 24 per cent of Uno Minda’s consolidated revenues, and is one of our fastest-growing activities.

A recent pivotal milestone was the commissioning of a new four-wheeler lighting plant in Gujarat, marking the inception of India’s first indigenous four-foot-long tail lamp (1.22 m). Subsequent orders for similar components from multiple OEMs solidified the company’s position in this segment. We are further expanding our capacity by setting up another four-wheeler lighting greenfield plant in Khed City, Pune, which is expected to come onstream by the end of FY25. The passenger car exterior lighting business has demonstrated robust performance, securing incremental orders and pioneering technological advancements in tail lamps, eclipsing headlamps in terms of product value.

We also have the German R&D centre working on niche lighting technologies for global luxury passenger vehicle brands. We are already supplying logo projectors, illuminated logos and badges, interior lighting, and starlight headliners from Germany to these global automakers. Our German R&D centre helps us to keep an eye on the global trends and offer similar niche lighting solutions for the Indian market.

DVN: What is your perspective on the lighting business in India?

Vivek Jindal : The Indian vehicle lighting market presents substantial growth opportunities, catalyzed by stringent safety norms, escalating consumer demand for advanced features, and the burgeoning electrification landscape. Going ahead, our focus will be on developing cutting-edge lighting technologies such as LED, laser, and adaptive lighting systems. By leveraging our manufacturing prowess and ecosystem, we seek to capture a larger market share and contribute to the nation’s vision of becoming a global automotive manufacturing powerhouse.

(in our July 2024 DVN Report, we estimated India’s lighting market at around €1.2bn in 2023 and forecast €2.7bn in 2030 with CAGR around 10 per cent -ed.)

Uno Minda envisions a future where lighting is not merely functional, but an integral component of vehicle æsthetics, safety, and intelligence. We aspire to be a global leader in vehicle lighting solutions, with India as our innovation hub.

DVN: How is the shift from bulbs to LED playing out in India?

Vivek Jindal : Uno Minda have proactively embraced the transition from traditional bulbs to LEDs, recognizing its significance in enhancing vehicle aesthetics, safety, and energy efficiency. We have a complete range of LED offerings for headlamps and rear lamps. While we have healthy LED uptake in 2-wheelers, uptake in passenger cars is increasing more gradually considering the cost differential.

(in our July 2024 DVN Report, we estimated LED prevalence at 50 per cent  for 2-wheelers, 25 per cent for passenger car front lighting -ed)

Our lighting supply chain is meticulously structured to integrate LED components seamlessly. We collaborate closely with domestic and global suppliers to ensure a robust and reliable supply of high-quality LEDs and associated components. Additionally, we have also developed a local supplier base for supplying LED to reduce import dependencies and enhance cost-competitiveness.

We don’t intend to get into semiconductor or LED production, as the skills and capabilities required are entirely different. We will continue to focus on our strengths: auto components and systems manufacturing.

DVN: What attracted you to join the DVN community?

Vivek Jindal : Uno Minda’s recent membership with DVN signifies a strategic move to bolster our position as a leading automotive component manufacturer. DVN, renowned for expertise in lighting and electronics, offers a platform that perfectly aligns with Uno Minda’s core competencies and future aspirations.

The automotive industry is undergoing rapid transformation, driven by advancements in technology and consumer preferences. Lighting and electronics have emerged as critical components in modern vehicles, enhancing safety, aesthetics, and user experience. By engaging with DVN, Uno Minda can access a wealth of knowledge, insights, and collaborative opportunities in these domains.

DVN: Uno Minda bought Delvis some years ago. Tell us about that, will you?

Vivek Jindal:  Delvis, now renamed to Uno Minda Europe, was founded in 2002 as a lighting design and engineering company. The business was built around the German automotive industry; and the company served automakers and European tier-1 suppliers in pre-development and new product development.

Uno Minda acquired Delvis in 2019. The acquisition was part of our strategy to augment and acquire technological capabilities in existing product lines, in this case lighting. Delvis was among the top players with state-of-the-art lighting technology, and closely working with German OEMs in pre-development activities for high end platforms, which deploy the next level of technologies. This acquisition delivered considerable synergies for growth of the lamp business in India, and enhanced product offerings to OEMs.

The acquisition strengthened our hold in the Indian vehicle lighting space. The advent of LED-based lighting products has brought a major shift; the acquisition helped us to fill the gap with cutting-edge technology that Delvis offered to the global markets, with a multiplier effect:

  • Broadening product offering, especially LED headlamps
  • A robust pipeline of new product launches
  • Improved our share of business with OEMs
  • Improved revenue mix
  • Access to global markets with manufacturing base in low-cost countries like India and Indonesia
  • Compliment both LSTC and iSYS RTS
  • Strengthened the Group’s European foothold

DVN: What is your future direction in the vehicle lighting industry?

Vivek Jindal : Uno Minda are a leading provider of advanced lighting technologies. By leveraging our expertise in electronics and LEDs, we aim to create customizable lighting systems that cater to individual driver preferences and enhance the overall driving experience and safety; includes the development of adaptive lighting systems, laser headlights, and OLED lighting.

We are now taking a step further with personalized system integration of the lamps within vehicles, by adopting the concept of ‘tier 0.5’, which integrates hardware, software, and advanced technologies. This has already been adopted by the European automotive market where they have a collaborative integration between automakers and tier-1 suppliers. The overhead console is a product that shows our collaborative, group-level thinking aligned with the OEMs. Creating such technologies while partnering with the OEMs strengthens our customer relations and shared knowledge, to achieve products that can become a benchmark at the global level.

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