Dana, a global leader in delivering mobile drivetrain and motion solutions, is focusing on electrification as the next big driver. In fact the company believes that electrification of drivetrain can be one of the fastest growing segments revenue expectation nearing $700 million. Moreover, they are looking at growing market share in India
Aligned with the automotive industry’s growing focus on electrification and sustainable practices, Gajanan Gandhe, Country Head and Vice President for Dana India highlighted that Dana is going all out in enabling electrification in the commercial vehicle space, “Electrification is going to be one of the key growth areas for us, apart from that, we are growing in thermal products. We’re growing in the traditional off-highway products which are in big demand globally. We’re also continuing to develop new transmissions and new axles and those kind of technologies.”
According to him most of the buses that are running on the road today, “I would say 90 plus percent of the electric buses on the road today anywhere in India has our motor and inverter. And many launches, whether it’s JBM, Tata, Switch from Ashok Leyland or some new ones that are coming up in the pipeline are having our products in there. So those are significant launches for us.” He explained how all these motors are made in Pune, in Chakan “through the PLI scheme of the Make in India initiative, so clearly India is also benefiting from having these made in India versus importing them.” Interestingly, the bus segment is seeing rapid electrification and currently over 5000 electric buses are plying in India and the share of e-buses in new bus sales is set to double to 8% this year from 4% in 2023.
But Dana is making some strategic moves and looking at grabbing a bigger share of the global electrification pie. It has “made investments to the tune of half a billion dollars in electrification around the world and we have 6 manufacturing facilities in Mexico and China, India, Sweden, North America, and Canada. So clearly a lot of investment has gone into electrification,” added Gandhe.
He reiterated that the company expects robust return on this investment, “We have over 500 engineers working out of Ohio, Detroit, Novi, Michigan, Canada, India, Pune also in China near Beijing. So clearly, not only in manufacturing, but we also invested in Engineering development of these products, which is being done globally now. In terms of revenue from electrification, I believe it’s, you know it’s in the range of what you said of 700 million, but it could be one of our fastest growing segments.”
As far as India is concerned, Dana’s focus “is on growing our market share here. You know, we are definitely looking everywhere into commercial vehicles, light utility vehicles. Also, off-highway vehicles and electric vehicles. So our focus is on growing those markets through our technology and through our product differentiation. We also want to establish a stronger capability to develop new products in India, so we are moving a lot of design and engineering to our own engineering center from global locations. So we want to be able to deliver everything that the Indian customers need out of India,” concluded Gandhe.
