Betting big on its India growth strategy, PCA Motors India, part of the PSA Group, today opened its new India Technical Center (ITC) in Chennai.

The new India Technical Center, according to the carmaker, will play a key role in smoother and more efficient working of the employees of Groupe PSA India. Working together as one single team in a large, open facility will boost the capacity of the group to accelerate further in India. Eric Apode, senior vice-president, PCA Motors India, was present at the launch.

The ITC is located in a specific building area, Chennai One, which is part of one of Chennai's Special Economic Zones (SEZs). The new centre will house departments of Research and Development, Programs and Projects, Global Purchasing Hub, Supply Chain, Process and Manufacturing Engineering, Quality, KD Excellence Center and Product.

The PSA Group's technical partner – TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) – being located in the same zone, will help to enhance the synergy and the efficiency of the work.

Commenting on the launch, Emmanuel Delay, executive vice-president and Head of India-Pacific, Groupe PSA, said, “The new India Technical Center is an important step for the development of the PSA Group in India, and is definitely an asset to grow the group’s business in the India and Pacific region."

"This is part of our strategy to develop a global network of state-of-the-art technical centre, strategically positioned in India, to support a customer-oriented agenda," he went on to say. "With the new centre, we are focusing our investment in creating a cohesive work environment to accelerate our growth. This unified approach will improve speed, efficiency and effectiveness of our employees, while enabling us to address evolving consumer needs more quickly in the future. Our investment in ITC further emphasises the importance of India to our global business.”

Eric Apode said, “The new India Technical Centre is the next strategic step for the PSA Group in India. It will allow the group to accelerate its growth in India quickly, through the development of new products and deployment of our strategy in and outside India. The area around our new centre is popular for housing dozens of international and Indian companies; this gives the Group strong confidence of attracting Indian talent to the new ITC. The Monozukuri philosophy – the art of creating objects in an efficient and effective way – is now taking shape with our new India Technical Centre, which will benefit group operations domestically and globally.”

The new office has been designed and built in a frugal manner, in what the company says is "consistent with the spirit of scalability corresponding to the India project." Going forward, the "state-of-the-art centre will also house a workshop for styling, architecture and assembly of prototypes."