INTERVIEW
We are working on electronic integration, says Gajanan V Gandhe, Vice President, IAC South Asia, and Executive Director, IAC India
Q: The lifespan of a vehicle has come down drastically. This puts more pressure on designers to bring out new ideas often. How do you view this scenario?
Gandhe: In Europe there is end of lifecycle requirements. It is not there in India yet but, it will be here soon. The aspects of it have already started to come to India. Re-cyclability, and biodegradability are some of the things that need to be considered. If re-usability also comes in, it would be great, as we do not have to dump. From that perspective, when we design, we ask the OEMs in terms of their expectations of lifecycle too. Based on that, we suggest materials that can be recycled and reused.
Q: Another major trend that is coming up in the industry is the lightweighting. How the industry is moving towards in reducing the weight of the materials further?
Gandhe: It will definitely be more of plastics. But, not just plastics. There will also be materials like jute PP, fabric materials etc, which can be recycled. There are also metals that are developed which have high strength like magnesium, aluminium and carbon fibre. The cost would not be a disadvantage here because when you look at the weight saving you get a better or equivalent cost management.
Q: What are the new trends you see in the global market for the instrument cluster that can be brought into India?
Gandhe: There is going to be a lot of electronic integration. Then there is lighting, soft-touch material in instrument panels etc. We have already introduced the soft-touch in India for a few vehicles. More chroming and features are also coming into the instrument panel. A panel with no buttons depends on the class of the vehicles. A few vehicles will continue with the buttons and some will go with the electronics. Mostly it will be a mix of everything. But, all this depends on the vehicle and where it is targeted to. On our R&D, we are working on the electronics integration because it is the future.