Osram India launches new Rallye halogen lamps for PVs, CVs and two-wheelers  

Osram India, the wholly owned subsidiary of Osram GmbH of Germany, the global leader in automotive lighting, today launched its new ‘Rallye’ range of high-performance automotive lighting products customised for the Indian market.

The German lighting major, which closed FY2016 with global revenues of 3.8 billion euros (+20%), out of which 85 million euros was from India, today launched its new Rallye range of automotive lighting bulbs in the country. 

The new Osram Rallye series includes a host of H4, H5 and H7 automotive bulbs, offering improved illumination and better road visibility.

The portfolio which targets passenger vehicles, two-wheelers and commercial vehicles comprises a total of 12 products, catering to the different automotive needs of these vehicles. The new bulbs, which will be locally made at the company's manufacturing facility in Chennai, as well as imported from Germany and China, will be sold in the aftermarket as retrofit options for customers. 

The bulbs are priced between Rs 110 to Rs 399 and will be available at nationwide dealerships through the company's 100 distributors, as well as online at Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.

Bullish on the Indian market
The aftermarket business in India accounts for 30 percent of Osram's volumes, with 70 percent business coming in from direct supply to major OEs operating in the country. The company also leads the market with a share of 70 percent in the automotive lighting space in India.

Announcing the launch of the Rallye range, Matt Hillenbrand, Global Business Head - Traditional Products, Osram GmbH, said, “Reports predict that the global automotive lighting market will grow steadily till 2020 due to rising awareness regarding road safety and growing automobile production. The Asia-Pacific region for Osram comprises of two key markets – India and China. These are the largest automotive vehicle markets and as such also our key focus markets for automotive lighting with passenger vehicles leading the demand for automotive lighting. Our Rallye range of products with premium halogen technology will carve a niche for itself in the market due to its high-end technology coupled with reasonable cost and easy availability.”

According to Avinder Singh, CEO, Osram India, “Our new Rallye range will definitely bring wider options to choose and cost competitiveness in the automotive aftermarket lighting industry. The range reiterates our commitment to continue investing in the replacement market. In fact, each year, more than half of all passenger vehicles manufactured worldwide are equipped with Osram lights and this figure goes to more than 70 percent when it comes to the India market. We aim to further consolidate our leadership position in the Indian automotive lighting market through this new range of products.”

While LED-fication of automotive bulbs has been gaining pace since the last couple of years, Osram's Chennai facility is holding on to the traditional lighting technology. 

"LED technology is set to flourish and expand to 25 percent by 2020, from the current level of being present in only 5 percent of new vehicles coming on the road worldwide. Currently our LED offerings are being imported into India as the capacity abroad is sufficient to cater to the Indian market as well. However, we are well geared up to take on any challenge in the surge in demand for LED technology and will evaluate to localise the technology as the future demand arises.”

"Asia Pacific, especially India, offers strong growth for the company and we are targeting double-digit growth in the next couple of years as what we've maintained over the last few years", added Singh.

Osram foresees 7-8 percent of its revenue contribution coming in from R&D activities handled for global industrial OEs and is targeting revenues of 5 billion euros by 2020.

Lighting the future
As the automobile sector continues to evolve at a rapid pace, the company is looking at offering other related technology-centric products, including digital systems, connected lighting, organic-LEDs, matrix lighting and smart lighting solutions. It introduced the first automotive laser light systems in the BMW 7-series and the Audi R8 LMX, developed in collaboration with BMW and Audi.

Osram is now also eyeing the expected boom in autonomous cars in the future and, with its opto-semiconductor vertical, plans to diversify into the business of designing and producing sensors related to the driverless technology. It also envisions LEDs to become a norm in future, as electrification would require vehicles to have highly efficient lighting systems to consume very little of the battery charge.