Germany’s Maha sees bumper biz with tightening testing norms in India

German testing equipment giant Maha has said its business in India will take a big leap as the union government has started tightening laws related to testing of vehicles going in for a Fitness Certificate (FC).

Talking to Autocar Professional at ACMA Automechanika New Delhi, Rengarajan, director of Maha India, said, “Commercial vehicles should get an FC every year. In India it is not done in a formalised manner. Now the Centre is trying to automate the whole process. Now the RTOs will get the support of technical evaluation carried out through test equipment.”

Once this system is in place, high tech-testing equipment providers like Maha will see handsome business, he said.

The Indian subsidiary of the German garage equipment maker has been present in India since 2010. All its products like testing and lifting equipment are homologated by German car and truck makers. Currently Maha is the only testing equipment player with a subsidiary in India. The equipment for Indian customers is imported from the company’s German manufacturing facility, said Rengarajan.

“As we have established service and sales through our organised Indian subsidiary, we are expecting a larger market share in the automotive testing equipment segment in the future. We have around 40 equipment in our product portfolio; most of them are for testing and a few for lifting” he said.

The company already has started supplying its equipment to OEMs to test their products at their manufacturing facilities in India. Its Indian customers include Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, BharatBenz, Volvo, Scania, VE Commercial Vehicles, AMW, Audi and Skoda.