Mercedes Benz to enhance component sourcing from India

Mercedes Benz is planning to increase component sourcing from India. Although the company has been sourcing components from India over the last ten years, the off take had been growing by at least 10% annually. The company is also setting up an engineering center to assist the Indian suppliers in catering to orders.

Wilfried Aulbur, MD, Mercedes Benz, said that they were working with about 40 suppliers and aggressively looking at how it could be expanded that base. He added, We have a number of components that are sourced from India. These include crank shafts for diesel engines, wheel rims for Actros trucks and grab handle for the A-Class vehicles and forged and rubber parts. Mercedes Benz also plans a wider role from its research and development office at Bangalore where it plans to increase headcount to up to 1000 engineers over the next few years from the existing 200-220.