Force Motors opens new plant,earmarks Rs100cr for BSVI upgrade

Force Motors today inaugurated a new manufacturing facility, entailing an investment of over Rs 100 crore, to supply engines and axles for all the locally assembled Mercedes-Benz models in India.
The company, which plans to invest another Rs 100 crore to prepare for upgradation to stricter emission norm of BS VI by 2020, will supply exclusively to Mercedes from the new plant.
"The inauguration of this plant marks a significant step in our 45-year-long association with Mercedes-Benz," Force Motors Managing Director Prasan Firodia said.
The plant, which was formally inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in the presence of Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, will help Force Motors be more flexible in terms of the production capacity demands.

The company had earlier manufactured engines for Mercedes at Urse, near here.
With India slated to upgrade to stricter emission norm by 2020, Firodia said Force Motors plans to invest Rs 100 crore in its own operations to migrate to Euro 6 emission norms from the current Euro 4 compliant engines.

"We will invest around Rs 100 crore to move from Euro 4 to Euro 6 engines," he said.
On sales growth, he said: "Last year we grew by 30-35 per cent and if monsoons are good this year we expect to grow in the range of 10-15 per cent."

When asked about the impact of ban on over 2000cc and above engines in Delhi-NCR, he said: "I won't be able to tell by how much we are impacted but as these luxury carmakers are impacted we have also taken a hit."
Hitting out at the ban, Force Motors Chairman Abhay Firodia said: "There are hurdles like ban on 2,000cc and above diesel engines. These are out of, I would say, lack of knowledge rather than out of knowledge on the part of people who decided to ban these."
Force Motors has been the preferred partner for producing
engines for all Mercedes-Benz cars and SUV's made in India since 1997.

The new plant, which is spread over 1,30,000 sq ft, has eight lines that produce and test up to 14 engine variants. This includes the 4 cylinder gasoline and diesel engines, 6 cylinder V-type gasoline and diesel engines.
It employs around 200 people and works in two shifts. Made with an investment of Rs 100 crore this plant is a part of the Rs 700 crore investment pledged by Force Motors over the next two years, across its value chain for multiple products, business verticals.
The facility has an annual capacity of 20,000 engines and 20,000 front and rear axles. It can be further enhanced, should there be a requirement from Mercedes, Firodia said.

Till date, Force Motors has supplied over 60,000 engines and over 50,000 axles to the German luxury carmaker. Last year the company had inaugurated a plant in Chennai that produces power trains for German car major BMW.
Pune-based Force Motors expects to triple its revenue to Rs 3,000 crore in next three years driven by its contract manufacturing business for leading automobile companies like Mercedes Benz and BMW. Currently, the revenue generated (from OEMs business is around Rs 1,000 crore.
Force Motors sells vehicles including small commercial vehicles, multi-utility vehicles, light commercial vehicles, sports utility vehicles and agricultural tractors.