The Hindu Business Line : Automotive Research Association betting big on R&D projects

Research plans
Tie-up with Sweden’s Lund University of Technology to build a homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine that industry expects to come on the road in four to five years.

Alka Kshirsagar

Pune, Aug. 27 It is not only national and international auto majors that are riding the auto wave in the country and stepping on the gas on the growth freeway.

Pune-based Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) has nearly doubled its income over the last five years to Rs 62 crore, and is looking at doubling it again over the next five years. And designing futuristic products like a commercial truck engine that will use a blend of CNG and hydrogen for fuel is part of the ambitious plan.

This project is part of a bigger plan to change the existing situation where taking care of 95 per cent of the country’s homologation (1,300-1,500 cases annually) and certification needs generates 60 per cent of its top line.

Going forward, the premier institution is focussing on research and development, and hopes to generate 60 per cent of its projected Rs 120-crore revenue by 2010 through self-funded R&D work. The course correction has already begun, and leading the change is Mr Shrikant Marathe, Director, who says, “In the future, whether you have technology or not is going to matter. Only knowledge build-up will get you customers.”

Self-funded projects

Armed with its agenda, the ARAI has embarked upon four self-funded projects since January. In the first, it has tied up with Sweden’s Lund University of Technology to build a homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine that, Mr Marathe says, industry expects to come on the road in four to five years.The second involves designing an all-new engine. “We are designing a brand new 1-2 litre diesel engine with very aggressive specifications, and hope to market this to auto companies,” he explains.

The third, and most exciting project, involves designing a 6L commercial engine that will use CNG and hydrogen as a blended fuel. ARAI has tied up with a Canadian research organisation for this.

To remain ahead

Part of its focus on research is impelled by its determination to remain competitive and find an alternative revenue stream once the Rs 1,718-crore National Automotive Testing and Research and Development infrastructure Project (NATRiP) gets off the ground. While the ARAI will be the designated Centre of Excellence (CoE) for engines, transmission, fatigue and materials, three new testing facilities are being set up at Delhi, Indore and Chennai. Naturally the ‘testing and homologation’ pie will be shared.

With Rs 250 crore coming ARAI’s way as a part of NATRiP, installation of a latest emissions measurement facility, multi-axial simulator table, an offset crash testing facility and doubling of the existing capacity in the servo hydraulic testing facility are among the projects on cards.

But the way ahead, Mr Marathe believes is through its focus of R&D and by adding muscle to its marketing and consultancy arm. “We bid against two international firms, bagged a Nigerian government contract to put up a testing centre there and prepare a road-map for emission and safety norms,” he reveals.

Other such possibilities overseas are also being actively probed in the quest to keep the ARAI self-sufficient and competitive.

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