Auto Trendz, Indian partner of China-based $ 5 billion Coagent Electronic S&T Co Ltd, recently launched Caska E-car Series which is a multimedia technology system for automobiles. Pravda Godbole spoke to Neeraj Banka, director, Auto Trendz India about the company’s future business plans.
Since when is Auto Trendz India, a partner of Coagent Electronic S&T Co. Ltd, China?
Autotrendz is the exclusive partner for Caska in India and we have been associated with Coagent’s Caska brand since 2010.
Through this partnership which products have entered/will enter the India market?
We have brought-in car specific custom fit car navigation and multimedia series to the Indian market. Initially we launched the regular series post which we brought in the smart series and now the E-car series is being launched.
Would Auto Trendz be responsible only for distributing Caska E-car in India?
We are the sole importers of Caska (from China) and we disseminate the units via our distributor network pan India.
What is the strength of your distributor network and do you intend to expand on it?
We have 25 distributors and 200 dealers across India at present. We plan to increase this number to 50 distributors and 500 dealers by end of this year.
What is the revenue understanding between Auto Trendz and Coagent? Autotrendz has done 100 per cent investment as of now in India to grow the brand. Caska has supported Autotrendz with some special offers and prices.
How do you plan to market this product ?
We plan to take this product in the market through dealers and car companies who would in turn sell it to the consumers. The price starts at Rs 31,000 up to Rs 49,990.
More From This Section
What are Auto Trendz's targets in terms of business volumes and for what time frame would these be?
We are expecting around 50, 000 units to be sold by the end of 2012.
What are your future plans for the India market?
Coagent intends to develop a research and development centre (R&D centre) in India and we also intend to bring in more advanced products by next year. We are in the process of finalising on either Bangalore, Pune or Hyderabad for the R&D centre. We will, in high probability finalise on Bangalore and the centre will be fully operational by early 2013.
To what tune will Coagent invest for this capability centre?
Investments for the same will happen in stages and they wont be only for the R&D centre. Though the company is ready to invest anywhere between Rs 50-Rs 100 crore, everything really depends on how robust we feel about the volumes. If we feel that opportunities will be aplenty then Coagnet will think of setting up a manufacturing unit too.
