The Hindu Business Line : Hot wheels

ALLOY wheels are fast becoming popular with discerning car owners in the country. With the higher trim variants of several cars even in the premium small car segment offering alloy wheels as a standard fitment, these products are, albeit slowly, catching the fancy of existing and new car buyers.

Most owners upgrading to alloys after trading in their current steel rims are doing so more for its aesthetics than for other benefits, such as better ride, durability and a marginal improvement in fuel efficiency. While there a couple of well-established domestic players in the alloy wheels market, the imports are largely being made by small companies in the unorganised segment.

JRD brand of alloy wheels is a recent entrant. Manufactured by Bright Rims Manufacturing Sdn. Bhd (BRM) headquartered in Malaysia, JRD is one of the more popular brands in Asia. The company has manufacturing operations in China and Thailand too.

BRM is the largest alloy wheel manufacturer in Malaysia that carries out an integrated process for the manufacture of wheels from ingots (raw material) to final wheel finishing. The company has a 95 per cent share of the original equipment (OEM) market in Malaysia and supplies its products to companies (as OEM either locally or by exports) such as Citroen, Daihatsu, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Isuzu, Kia, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Perodua, Peugeot, Piaggio, Proton, Renault, Sangyong and Suzuki. JRD brand wheels have been approved by the Vehicle Inspection Agency of Japan.

In India, the whole range of alloy wheels has been launched from the 13 and 14-inchers, for small cars, to the bigger and broader 16-inch and 17-inch wheels, for luxury cars and sports utility vehicles. Alloy wheels are also available in various finishes, including silver, polish grey, smoke silver, hyper black and metallic silver. Prices range from Rs 14,000 to Rs 23,000 for a set of five wheels.

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