Renault Nissan Automotive India (RNAIPL) has manufactured over 4.5 million (45 lakhs) powertrain units at its facility in Oragadam, Chennai, including 2.83 million engines and 1.67 million gearboxes since the start of production in 2010.
Renault Nissan Automotive manufacturing unit: Details
The manufacturing facility has end-to-end capabilities for producing engines, starting with melting aluminium ingots. The molten metal is then cast into engine parts like the cylinder head and block in the casting shop. These parts are machined to precise dimensions in the machining shop, and finally assembled in the assembly shop.
The plant also produces engines with ranges from 800cc to 1500cc. The Renault Nissan Automotive India also includes all facilities required for manufacturing gearboxes including gear machining, shaft machining, clutch house machining and gear heat treatment.
So far, the alliance has produced seven different types of engines and three kinds of gearboxes. By 2016, just six years after production began, the Renault Nissan Automotive India had reached a milestone of one million engines and had also produced over 160,000 EV reducer components for export.
One of the top engines produced by the Renault Nissan Automotive India, is the HR10 Turbo, which uses mirror bore cylinder coating technology found in sports cars like the Nissan GT-R. This technology reduces engine friction, lowers weight, improves heat management, and enhances combustion, resulting in smoother acceleration and better fuel efficiency.
Keerthi Prakash, Managing Director, RNAIPL said, “The production of 4.5 million powertrain units is a very important milestone for RNAIPL. In addition to powering the cars produced at our Chennai plant, we have also exported powertrain units and components to other countries around the world. Looking to the future, as part of the USD 600 million investment announced by the Renault Nissan alliance, we are readying our infrastructure to produce the engines and gearboxes for our new models.”
The manufacturing plant of Renault Nissan Automotive India uses robotic vision cameras to check quality at each stage of production. The process ensures that no unit moves to the next stage until it has been fully inspected and certified for quality.
