Apollo plans fundamental research centre in India

By David Shaw, ERJ staff

Baroda, India -- Apollo Tyres plans to set up its own fundamental research centre in India. Peter Becker, Apollo's head of R&D, said that this will not affect the existing development centres in Enschede, South Africa and India, but the company needs to carry out fundamental research into tyre technology and into process and machinery, if it is to meet its ambition to be a world-class player.

"Today," said Becker, "we have state of the art equipment, [bought in from external suppliers] but for the future we have to think about our own equipment and our own process technology. This is the next step."

Becker said, Today we cannot say we are at the top level in the world." He said that Apollo, and Vredestein together are on a good level, but to get to the top level there has to be another step forward.

Becker said Apollo does not have a research centre today. He said there are development centres in Enschede, Netherlands, Baroda, India and a smaller one in South Africa. "These will stay" he emphasised. For the next step, he said, "We need a single, global research centre which will look for new materials; new compounds; new concepts; new process methods and equipment. This is outside the day-to-day development jobs."

Becker said the board has given the go-ahead for the centre, which will be located in India. No final decisions have been made, but the unit is expected to be set up in Chennai, due to the proximity both to OE manufacturers and to Apollo's most advanced tyre plant.

Doug Bolduc of Automotive News contributed to this report