Lear: more new patents to come from China Engineering Center

Gasgoo.com: What are major Lear seating technology (ex lightweight)? Did you bring to China?

Mathew Ma: Lear seating technology provides new, more flexible and lightweight solutions, including the application of industry-leading alternative materials such as SoyFoam™  and DECS™ and best-in-class safety features such as our ProTec® PLuS active head restraint systems and our new ECO seat structures that feature the next generation of low-mass, high-function structures and mechanisms.

All these technologies are brought to China and offering to our customers in China.

Gasgoo.com: In seat development for China market, did you utilize the technology and apply for local customer demands? Do you have basic R&D research in China? Does any new seat technology is invented in China? In what situation, new technology will be invented in China?

Mathew Ma: We are doing both now. Since we already have existing advanced technology mentioned above, we just implement them for local China programs application. On the other side, we started some basic R&D research in China Engineering Center.

Since 2007, there are about 10 seating technology patents developed in China Engineering Center. More new patents are on the way since we are increasing effort in research and development work.

Gasgoo.com: Lear finance report shows that 3rd quarter China sales increased by 66%. What's Lear's ED&D investment percentage of China sales? Is the percentage will be increased?

Mathew Ma: Lear has invested greatly in ED&D in China, and much of that investment was necessary to generate the mentioned increase in sales. We will continue to invest in China since this is one of the largest growing auto market in the world.

Gasgoo.com: Lear us supplying seats to Local OEMS, such as Chery. But local OEM has much more challenging cost requirement, whether you feel that? In order to develop low cost seat, what did you change to deal with the challenge.

Mathew Ma: Yes, we did feel much more cost challenge from Local OEMs. One major competitive advantage that local OEMs have is low price product.  Lear is offering best in class product with competitive price through optimized design and platform structure application. Also through vertical integration, we can produce core components such as mechanisms, foam and trim to keep a competitive price.

Gasgoo.com: Tell us some information about China Engineering Center (CEC).

Mathew Ma: China Engineering Center is founded in Jan, 2005, Now we have 100+ engineers. CEC has full engineering capability for seating development, starting from concept design to final product validation and launch support, We have key capabilities including styling, modeling, FEA, dimensional engineering, trim development and full seating testing capabilities. CEC team consists of multinational engineering experts and strives for customer best-in-class service. CEC also plays an important role in Lear's global engineering capability. We are currently joint-developing products with our Lear teams in other regions of the world. which demonstrates CEC is phasing into a global technical center. The global seating development experience will be greatly beneficial to local OEMs product development.

About Lear:

Lear Corporation is one of the world's leading suppliers of automotive seating systems and electrical distribution and power management systems. The Company's world-class products are designed, engineered and manufactured by a diverse team of approximately 75,000 employees at 205 facilities in 36 countries. Lear's headquarters are in Southfield, Michigan, and Lear's common shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol [LEA].