AL was created in 1999 as a merger of the vehicle lighting operations of Magneti Marelli and Bosch. At that time, the turnover was about €500m with around 6,000 employees including 360 technicians in 12 locations. In 2016, the turnover was €3.5bn with around 20,000 employees including 1,900 engineers in 29 locations.
The improving position of AL through the years is due to:
- Strong growth of the automotive world market
- High technology delivered to premium brands
- Global spread of AL’s footprint into all world regions
- Application centres and manufacturing sites close to all customers
- International experienced employees with cross-functional and cross-cultural competence
- Providing everything from economic base concepts up to innovative, intelligent and individual solutions
- Joint co-development of new powerful and profitable modular solutions together with various key customers
- Integrated optoelectronic concepts, including functional hardware and software solutions. AL are developing and producing all kind of ECUs for front and rear lighting—up to 100% of LED lighting ECUs for automakers such as BMW and Jaguar Land Rover, HID ECUs for FCA and various other carmakers, and central AFS and ALWR control units for PSA cars.
DVN’s visit was focused on 5 innovative concepts: