Efficiency and reliability were decisive

Nissan’s first and so far sole Russian car factory in St. Petersburg chose Grundfos as the main supplier of pump equipment. The factory, producing Nissan models Teana, X-Trail and Murano, was designed for a production capacity of 50,000 cars a year.

General Director at Nissan in Russia, Dmitry Mikhailov, explains that Nissan’s production in St. Petersburg has been organised in accordance with the philosophy and production principles in force at Nissan factories in other countries.

- All equipment used at the factory meets our international requirements of efficiency and reliability. This is why Grundfos was chosen as supplier, he said.

Area Sales Manager, Alexander Dudunov of Grundfos in Russia said that sales to car manufacturers in the country increased by 50 to 80 percent a year for the past few years and, in addition to Nissan, Grundfos also delivered pumps for, e.g., Ford, Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai and VW.

- There are several reasons why car manufacturers prefer us as pump supplier, the most important being the brand, quality, low energy consumption, reliability and our worldwide service organisation, he explained.

More focus on energy

Grundfos is also supplying pump solutions for BMW, General Motors, Daimler, Volvo and other car manufacturers in several places of the world. Project Sales Manager, Jacob Rafn from Grundfos Group HQ explained that car manufacturers in general require high quality because a defective pump may result in heavy losses in lost production time.

- At the same time it has become easier for us to convince customers of the advantages of energy efficient solutions, the reason being that energy prices are increasing in countries like Russia, China, India and Brazil, where car manufacturers are investing massively as growing purchasing power makes it possible for more and more people to purchase cars, explained Mr Rafn.

Sub suppliers are following

Car factories use pumps for a number of purposes, such as water supply, the removal of waste water, and equipment for fire fighting. Mr Rafn reported that until recently, the new establishments in that part of the world were primarily for assembly but recently it has become more common to see production factories.

A few years after the establishment of a factory, plants for engines, gear boxes and other spare parts follow. In addition, a large number of sub suppliers typically establish production in the same clusters as the car factories and they often require just as many pumps as the car manufacturers, said Mr Rafn.