The plans resonate with the direction ZF is taking, which had started last year when it consolidated its commercial vehicle, passenger car, off-highway sales, and after-market and engineering operations under its wholly-owned subsidiary ZF India.

“Our immediate focus is to restore our reputation in India as a key global auto parts maker both for passenger cars and CVs. Another high priority is to identify and develop the R&D presence in the country. We are in the midst of populating our global R&D operations with a presence in India. We are in the process of finalising the location,” Rudi von Meister, ZF’s president of the Asia Pacific region told a selected group of journalists.

KV Suresh, president, ZF India, said there was a strong possibility to set up R&D operations in India in view of the growth prospects in the Indian automotive industry. The R&D centre would be located either in a strong R&D hub or a popular automotive manufacturing centre.

“Presently, we have about 30 engineers working on product development at our factory complex in Pune. We need to ramp up this operations for both global and local needs. This is also part of our global plans, under which we intend to shift our industrial infrastructure and product development capabilities out of our traditional home units to the markets that we serve,” said Mr Meister.

ZF spends about five percent of its revenues on R&D. In 2015, it spent €1.4 billion (US$1.55 billion) on R&D.