Autoliv to supply 25 million airbag inflators by 2016

Autoliv Inc, the global leader in automotive safety, yesterday provided many updates in a speech by its CEO, president and chairman Jan Carlson at Deutsche Bank's Global Auto Industry Conference, held in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Active safety revenues in 2014 reached around $490 million (Rs 3,095 crore), essentially reaching the $0.5 billion target one year ahead of the plan established in late 2011. The company is now preparing for the next level of active safety and automated driving features in addition to its current focus of selling vision, night vision and radar products and systems.

The future offering will continue to provide world-leading sensing products, but will additionally include highly-automated system integration capabilities needed for future cars. Autoliv says it intends to be one of the leading system suppliers in active safety moving toward autonomous driving.

The company is continuously building its electronics business and capabilities, and now targets to reach $2 billion (Rs 12,634 crore) in sales for 2019 in its new electronics business segment which became operational on January 1, 2015, out of which around $1 billion (Rs 6,317 crore) will be active safety sales. The electronics business segment includes passive safety electronics and active safety.

In today's situation with record safety related recalls in the automotive industry, the focus on quality as a number one priority is more important than ever. Related to the current airbag quality issues with another supplier, Autoliv says it has agreements with several different OEMs for new supply capacity of up to 25 million airbag inflators for delivery during 2015 and 2016 and is in discussions for the supply of millions of additional units. Autoliv is expanding its capacity and capabilities to meet this demand as rapidly as possible.