New Delhi

Indian auto component major Motherson has extended its cooperation with Marelli Automotive Lighting for a new toolroom in India - a first of its kind toolroom in India dedicated to specific automotive lighting applications. The toolroom will be an extension of the existing joint venture company - Marelli Motherson Automotive Lighting India Pvt Ltd. The 50/50 JV was established in 2008 to address the Indian exterior lighting market and now it counts four plants in India. 

The new toolroom will localise tools for the domestic market (previously imported), specific for the lighting domain, that were previously imported, enhancing the country’s local capabilities. With the additional capabilities in tooling, Motherson’s manufacturing and existing tooling competence combined with the technical know-how of Marelli will result in high precision and aesthetical automotive lighting products. The new tool room, which will be based in Delhi Region (Noida), and is slated to begin production in Q2 FY23.

Vivek Chaand Sehgal, Chairman, Motherson, commented, said, “We are delighted to meet this long-standing request from our customers. The need to be locally present for complete applications has never been more relevant in the context of the automotive industry. We are sure that with the continued support of Marelli, this tooling capability for automotive lighting will help us in delivering solutions to the present and future requirements of our customers in India.”

Sylvain Dubois, CEO of Marelli’s Automotive Lighting division, said, "We are glad to make available to the JV the Marelli Automotive Lighting competences for high precision and high aesthetical tools, that will be transferred with a strong attention to the local team, for a flawless launch from the first tool manufactured. Enabling excellence and quality aimed at customers will be the mission also of the new tool room and further opportunities will arise from the synergies with the other 3 Automotive Lighting tool rooms in the other Regions.”

Marelli Motherson Automotive Lighting (MMLI) is a joint venture between Marelli and Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd (SAMIL). MMLI is one of the largest suppliers of premium and LED exterior lighting in India for Passenger Cars. Its current presence is across the key automotive clusters in India with 4 production facilities and a dedicated Engineering Centre. MMLI’s strong and developing product line is a result of its in-house design capability, state of the art manufacturing facilities and capability for in-house testing making it a preferred supplier for all major OEMs in India. MMLI is part of Motherson Group, which is a diversified global manufacturing specialist and one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing automotive suppliers for OEMs. The group recorded revenues of $ 9.8 billion for FY21 and is ranked 21st among the world’s largest automotive suppliers.

Marelli is one of the world’s leading global independent suppliers to the automotive sector. With around 58,000 employees worldwide, the Marelli footprint includes 170 facilities and R&D centres across Asia, the Americas, Europe, and Africa, generating revenues of Yen 1,266 billion (Euro 10.4 billion) in 2020.