The Hindu Business Line : Global car designers eyeing India

Tapping talent
Caran recruiting nearly 300 engineers from India over a period of two years to design not only cars but also aircraft for its clients globally.

Bangalore , Nov. 10

With almost every global carmaker showing up on Indian roads, international car designers too don't want to left behind as they find it is at least 50 per cent cheaper to design cars in the country.

"We want to be in India much before others do so that we can take advantage of costs," Swedish-based car design company, WM-data Caran AB's marketing director, Mr Lennart Andersson, told Business Line.

He said cars were becoming safer, cheaper and easier to produce than ever before. "It is no longer a matter of fashion. It is more a matter of function," he said.Caran's India country manager, Mr Barun Kumar, said designing cars in India was at least 50 per cent cheaper than in Europe or the US.

"There are hardly any engineers in India who specialise in designing cars but finding young, bright people is easy in India," he said.

Caran is recruiting nearly 300 engineers from India over a period of two years to design not only cars but also aircraft for its clients globally.

Cars for specific markets

It obviously helps to design cars for a specific market. Ford Fiesta, which was designed specifically for the Indian market, has, in fact, turned around the fortunes of the carmaker in the country. Ford's sales were languishing at around 25,000 in 2005 but since the debut of Fiesta in November last, the company expects to double its sales this year.

"At Ford India, we ensure that we just don't bring in products into India that have been launched in other regions but try to proactively adapt our products to local external factors such as infrastructure, affordability, government policies and local market conditions," said Ford India's Managing Director and President, Mr Arvind Mathew. According to engineering services company, QuEST's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Arvind Melligeri, pure computer-aided design costs around $500 per car if the volumes are higher. "Because of stress on cost savings, design function has been moved to tier 1 companies from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs)," he said.

Even Maruti Suzuki Swift, partly designed by Indian engineers, has turned out to be a runaway success for the company. A company official said there were plans to set up a car design centre for Suzuki in its plant here, which will perhaps be the first such dedicated centre for any car company in India.

Mr Andersson is hopeful that soon one of the car companies in Asia will allow his company to design a complete car suited to conditions in the continent: "We are still waiting for a maker who dares to rethink, redefine the current cars in Asia."

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