Market recovery to begin shortly: SEG Automotive

The Indian automobile market, which witnessed a slowdown last year is expected to start recovering from FY21, the India head of SEG Automotive told APF in an exclusive interaction. The Stuttgart-based brand is a leading supplier of recuperation machines, generators and starter motors globally.

“We strongly believe that India’s economic fundamentals are good and growth is bound to return shortly. As per our estimates, the automobile market will start recovering from the second half of 2020-21 fiscal, with FY22 likely to be a good year for sure. A lot will, however, depend on the policy support to particularly the scrappage policy. If that happens a bit early it would help the industry recover faster,” said Anil Kumar MR, Managing Director, SEG Automotive India Pvt Ltd, in an exclusive interaction with Manish Pant.

The company has been a manufacturer of starter motors and generators for over a century. Earlier known as Bosch Starter Motors and Generators, the company transitioned to an independent entity in 2018 under new management.

“We continue to put in our effort to make internal combustion (IC) engines more efficient. We are focusing on enhancing our portfolio to meet the future Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) norms with products like the start/stop motors, high-efficiency generators and P0 and other hybrids in different configurations for the IC engines,” informed Kumar.

As SEG is technology agnostic in powertrains, that puts them in an advantageous position compared to peers in the diesel and petrol mix. For instance, a start/stop motor along with a high-efficiency generator will give up to 8 per cent reduction of CO2. Similarly, in the 48-volt concept, a P0 hybrid provides for 15 per cent and P4 hybrid 26 per cent reduction in emissions.

The company is also expanding its portfolio in electric mobility and believes that IC and electric engines will co-exist. “We have started our Indian foray on light electric mobility and are already in cities with e-rickshaws. We would be entering two-wheeler and autorickshaw segments shortly,” said Kumar.

As SEG is technology agnostic in powertrains, that puts it in an advantageous position compared to peers in the diesel and petrol mix.

The company also derives immense pride from its R&D infrastructure. “We continuously invest in R&D so our innovation pipeline is always on. As a global team, we have become very agile and that gives us the strength to adapt to any changes in the market fairly quickly. A demonstration of that is our e-motor that we got on the road within a one-and-a-half-year period, which is an excellent time to market,” declared Kumar.