Aptiv: Aptiv to invest over $45 million to expand production at TN facility

Mobility-focused technology company Aptiv on Tuesday said it was investing more than $45 million in engineering and facilities while expanding production of its manufacturing plant near Chennai to provide automotive manufacturers with software-defined cockpit solutions. The company will also be doubling the number of employees working at the plant.

The inauguration that took place on Tuesday saw participation from Aptiv’s Senior Vice President and President of Advanced Safety and User Experience (AS&UX), Matthew Cole and Mahindra & Mahindra’s President and Chief Purchasing Officer Vinod Sahay.

“Our expansion is really a recognition of the changes in the Indian market and specifically for Indian OEMs,” Cole told ET. “If you look at the features, content and the requirements from OEMs, especially on the safety side and on the user experience side inside the cockpit, it’s more a shift towards the software-defined vehicle. That’s what’s prompting this investment.”

He said Aptiv has been investing in India for nearly 30 years and the Chennai plant expansion represented another critical milestone in the company’s ongoing commitment to grow in the region.

“Aptiv is fairly well balanced between North America, Europe and Asia,” Cole said. “The different market trends that we’re seeing across Asia, but specifically here in India, really fit our product portfolio very well. So we’re partnering with OEMs here in India and across the region to make sure that we can deliver advanced safety systems to them for high-performance compute, sensing and perception, interior monitoring, cabin sensing and those types of products.”

With nearly 220,000 square feet, the expanded plant will produce cutting-edge cockpit control systems and will scale up to include advanced safety and user experience features such as radars, cameras, and next-generation electronic control units for India and global markets.

“From our plant in Chennai, we are already supplying high-quality components, such as integrated body control modules (iBCM) to the key automakers in the country,” Arun Devaraj, Vice President and Managing Director, AS&UX APAC (Non-China), Aptiv said. “Our new and smart production facility, allows us to support an even wider range of clients, further solidifying our position as one of the key automotive partners in India.”

With over 13,000 employees in India, Aptiv operates three technical centers and offers a strategically located manufacturing footprint comprising seven plants.