Wilfried Aulbur is managing director and CEO of DaimlerChrysler India, the Indian arm of DaimlerChrysler AG, one of the largest automobile companies in the world and the manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz cars. A career DaimlerChrysler executive, Dr Aulbur did his doctorate in physics from University of California in the US, and his research paper centred around nuclear physics and allied areas.

He started his stint at DaimlerChrysler at the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co (EADS), a company owned 50 per cent by Aerospatiale Matra and BAE Systems, and 50 per cent by DaimlerChrysler Aerospace. Dr Aulbur’s present assignment in India is the third one, the first beginning in 1994 followed by the one at Mercedes’ research centre in Bangalore in 1998. Dr Aulbur loves Indian food and his relationship with the country is stronger as he is married to a Chennaite, who was his classmate at the University.

For a person who has worked in every DC department, Dr Aulbur assisted the company’s core team in formulating the China policy to chart out a growth plan for one of the most exciting markets in the world for automobile giants. Dr Aulbur’s immediate prior posting, before taking over the reins of DC India in January 2006, was as an executive assistant to a DC AG board member.

Excerpts from an interview with Santosh Singh:

Its been more than 10 years for DaimlerChrysler in India. How’s it going for the company?
The last year was a phenomenal one for us, with a record 2019 Mercedes-Benz cars sold in India. Of this, we sold 829 C-class cars and 825 E-class models. Moreover, 5 Maybachs run on Indian roads today. We have a strong presence in 24 cities and towns and our endeavour is to get closer to our customers. The assembled S-class and E-class continue to show strong growth and the CBU range of cars — CLS and SLK — have been successful.

Do you expect to beat last year’s sales figures?
Of course, we will better last year’s sales figures this year as the luxury car market has room to grow. We see good demand from the rural markets and significant sales are being witnessed in tier I and tier II towns. As we see it, the economic success that India has achieved and the dramatic rise in the number of young, successful IT professionals will ensure strong sales for Mercedes cars. However, New Delhi continues to be our biggest market followed by Mumbai and Chennai and then the Southern market.

But with BMW’s own plant being set up in Chennai and Audi also evincing interest to enter the Indian market, will the going be easy?
Competition is always welcome and it helps the market to grow. There will certainly be some impact with Audi and BMW’s entry. In some segments we have a market share of 99 per cent. We can’t hold on to that figure for long but at the end of the day the product range matters for an impact on the market. Mercedes still has an edge on that front.

How much does DaimlerChrysler Research Centre in Bangalore contribute to the company’s core functions? Further, how is the components sourcing business doing for DaimlerChrysler?
The Bangalore research centre contributes significantly in IT and Engineering functions for the company. About 250 engineers undertake research in the areas of encryption, image signal processing, telematics and fuel-cell modelling among other things. Coming to sourcing of components from India, the group’s sourcing of motors and crank-shafts from India is substantial and will grow in future. Sourcing from India makes sense because Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have attained world-class standards.

DaimlerChrysler is planning to enter the commercial vehicle segment for quite some time now with the introduction of Actros and introduce in the segment that is catered by Volvo and Tata Novus. When will Actros be launched?
Actros will be launched positively this year after due clearances. It would come to India in the Completely Built Unit (CBU) format initially and with this range of trucks DaimlerChrysler will be targeting the tipper market, which has a size of 85,000 units. To start with, we are looking at selling 850 Actros’ in India.

DaimlerChrysler has been testing jatropha fuel in Mercedes cars. Do you plan to commercially use jatropha?
The process is still in the research stage and trial runs have been conducted on the C-class cars.
A lot of factors such as cost-efficiency and CO2 balance have to be looked into before taking a final call on jatropha as a fuel. Besides, farmers also need to understand the importance of commercially marketing jatropha. A similar project using wood has been undertaken in Germany. The Indian project is underway in partnership with the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research and the final report will be submitted to a government agency.

How efficient are hybrid vehicles globally?
Upgradation of fuel technology in existing cars is of prime importance for car manufacturers. Hybrids have takers in the United States. Hybrids should have a relevance in stop-start conditions. However, diesel is catching up faster as a preferred alternative to petrol. Diesel cars use 30 per cent less fuel than cars that are powered by petrol. Recognising these trends, Daimler Chrysler has introduced ‘Blowfish’ which is a diesel-hybrid.

What’s the outlook for the Indian market from Mercedes’ point of view?
The outlook is definitely positive. There has been a sea-change in India since the last time I was here in 1994. The government is working in the right direction when it comes to infrastructure and the duty structure. India will emerge as a very important market for us and will see the complete Mercedes portfolio of cars being launched. All in all, we are bullish on the Indian market.

But the huge difference between India and China as markets is still a reality. What is your take?
The magnitude of the difference between China and India in numbers is 3.5. For example, if the Indian car market has a size of 10,00,000 car units, China would have 35,00,000 cars. China began the process of liberalising its market before India, so they have the edge.

However, India’s economy according to Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) will be the third biggest by 2025. Keeping this in mind, India has a huge potential for car majors.

Invensys, the global automation, controls and process solutions group, with annual sales of $5.3 billion and 100,000 plant installations, announced that once the Jamnagar refinery automation contract, valued at Rs 150 crores, was completed in two years, Reliance Industries would have the largest process automated refinery system in the world.

Invensys would provide the plant with intelligent automated distributed control systems with high-speed mesh architecture and the latest emergency safety shut down systems.

"While there are currently 17 process plants at the Jamnagar refinery, Reliance will add another 12 more process plants soon. We are upbeat about the Rs 2,000 crore process automation industry is India and expect the industry to grow at 17 per cent annually," said Mr Rakesh Gada, managing director, Invensys, India.

Invensys also announced on Thursday the launch of the world’s first enterprise control system (InFusion) with advanced information technology that creates unified real-time control, information, and application environment across virtually all plant and enterprise systems.

Mr Chris Layden, vice-president, global marketing said, "InFusion is the first system to enable all existing plant-floor systems (including third party) to be integrated into a common application environment."

The process automation industry could also see the foray of wireless technology in the oil and gas, petro-chemical and pharma industry, with real-time information available on handhelds and laptops on processes like batch reactions, oil movements, blend optimisation, alarm management and unit performing monitoring data.

Mr Grant Le Sueur, brand director, InFusion, said, "Wireless technology is a challenge in the industry, with electrical noise being the chief concern. However, the wireless technology market has matured and the technology we currently use are beyond those that are commercially available. This will help reduce the cost of deployment and could bring more information into the automation system."