Wheels India Signs Pact with Japan's Topy for Aluminium Wheels

• Wheels India partners with Topy Industries to enhance its aluminium alloy wheel manufacturing capabilities
• Expanding supply of alloy wheels to Indian OEMs like Tata Motors, Hyundai, and Volkswagen
• Increasing plant capacity to 7 lakh wheels per annum, with plans to reach 10 lakh by FY27

Recently, Wheels India announced its agreement to work with Japanese company Topy Industries. They have agreed to work together to assist the development of Wheels’ abilities to design, develop and manufacture cast aluminium alloy wheels.

 They will provide Topy with their technological knowledge and engineering services to help improve Wheels' processes within the aluminium wheel market. Topy has extensive experience (over 100 years) of manufacturing wheels, and they bring extensive engineering capabilities for aluminium wheel technologies to this agreement.

The Alloy Wheel segment of Wheels India was launched in FY21 with the commissioning of a highly automated facility located at Thervoy Kandigai near Chennai. At the start, Wheels India exported Alloy Wheels to USA and Europe as an aftermarket product; however, over time its focus has now shifted toward supplying Alloy Wheels to Indian Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs).

Srivats Ram, Managing Director, Wheels India stated, “Topy Industries is a globally renowned aluminium wheel manufacturer with cutting-edge technologies. This agreement is expected to bring in considerable technical expertise and help us win new businesses, strengthening our competitive position in the cast aluminium segment”.

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Wheels India has begun to supply Aluminium Alloy Wheels to Indian OEMs such as Tata Motors and Stellantis, while at the same time has also received new domestic orders from Hyundai Motor India and Volkswagen with deliveries expected to start in FY22.

“Through this agreement, we are hoping to make fresh inroads into Japanese OEMs in India in the alloy wheel segment”, he added.

To help address this increased demand, Wheels India is increasing capacity at its Thervoy Kandigai facility from 5 lakh wheels per annum to 7 lakh wheels per annum, which is scheduled for completion by the end of the next quarter.

With increasing demand, Wheels India plans to expand capacity again to 10 lakh wheels per annum by FY27. Wheels India is also part of a joint venture with Topy Industries under WIL Car Wheels Limited in the Steel Wheel segment to supply steel wheels to Japanese OEMs in India.