India Nippon to commission its Rewari plant soon

According to Mr. K. Seshadri, director, India Nippon Electricals Ltd., a TVS-group company, two-wheeler manufacturers will, apart from switching over to four-stroke engines in order to meet the strict emission norms, be likely to go in for digital ignition system in the place of analog ones.

"The digital ignition system automatically alters the settings while monitoring the engine heat. It also helps in fuel efficiency and emission norms. The analog ignition system monitors only the engine speed," explains Mr. Seshadri. However, the digital ignition system costs double that of the analog.

According to Mr. Seshadri, Bajaj and TVS Suzuki are the two-wheeler manufacturers sourcing digital ignition systems for their top end vehicles Eliminator and Fiero respectively.

Mr. Seshadri further believes that the two- and three-wheeler production, which stood at 3.8 million units for the year ended March 2000, is expected to cross 4.2 million this fiscal.

With this in mind, India Nippon has invested around Rs. 3 crore in an automated electronic component assembly line for manufacture of digital control units and miniaturised regulator/rectifier units using surface mounted technology. The company is all set to commission its plant at Rewari, Haryana, soon.

The two-lakh systems per annum plant will initially cater to the needs of Hero Honda (a leading manufacturer of motor cycles, with its plant in the same state), thereby cutting down its transport and warehousing costs. Based on the demand, supplies to other manufacturers could be made.

India Nippon is sourcing the digital technology from Kokusan Denki Company, a Hitachi group company, which is a leading manufacturer of ignition systems for Japanese two-wheeler manufacturers such as Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha. India Nippon’s product portfolio consists of flywheel magneto, capacitor discharge ignition unit, ignition coil, and the regulator/rectifier unit.

The domestic ignition system industry is a mix of independent manufacturers and captive units of vehicle manufacturers such as Bajaj Auto, Kinetic Group, Escorts and LML. LML accounts for 30 per cent of the total industry’s production.

Among the standalone manufacturers, the Rs 97.97 crore India Nippon commands 40 per cent of the market, followed by Jaihind Industries, Pune, and Denso India, New Delhi, with 20 and 10 per cent shares respectively. According to Mr. Seshadri, the replacement market forms a miniscule part.