Daikin, an air conditioner manufacturer, desires to build two million units in India this fiscal year and hopes to expand its export potential by making India a manufacturing hub.

According to Kanwaljeet Jawa, Chairman and Managing Director of Daikin Air conditioning India, the business has already sold 7 lakh residential air conditioners (RAC) in the first three months of the year, aided by a scorching summer this season, and expects over 50% increase.

Daikin has launched its third manufacturing site in India, in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh, with the goal of producing five million compressors by 2030.

"The mandate is of 5 million units, which includes 4 million units for the domestic market and 1 million of exports by 2030 and we are very confident," Jawa stated to PTI.

"The India RAC market has already crossed the inflection point and is currently entering the explosive phase. "At the same time, prices have fallen and energy efficiency has increased," he stated.

Daikin is also exporting to regions like South Africa, the Middle East and South America, aided by its new 75-acre Sri City production facility, South East Asia's largest factory.

Daikin entered the Indian market in 2004 and has invested more than Rs 2,000 crore till date.

Daikin India, a subsidiary of the world's largest air conditioner manufacturer headquartered in Osaka, Japan, intends to enter the commercial refrigeration market as well.

"In India, Chinese items saturated the RAC market. However, Daikin made an important decision. We established our own production and R&D," Jawa explained, adding that the company also established its own air conditioning development hub and skill centres. It is presently the second-largest participant in the rapidly developing RAC market.

Daikin has two production plants in Neemrana, Rajasthan and one in Sri City, which are supported by three R&D facilities.

"We now manufacture ACs in sizes ranging from 0.75 tonnes to 2,700 tonnes in India," Jawa added, saying that Daikin has the most complete options in the Indian market.

Daikin intends to increase localisation to 75% from 53% at present, aided by domestic manufacturing of compressors and PCB circuits, among other things.

Daikin currently operates over 15,000 sales locations and a network of 350 EBOs known as Daikin Solution Plazas.