Safety & Complexity of converting an American vehicle to right-hand drive
Autogroup International has been in the LHD to RHD conversion business for 30-years, safely converting over 5,000 left-hand drive American SUVs, Pickup Trucks and Muscle Cars. As the longest established and largest RHD conversion manufacturer exporting our high quality and safe vehicles into Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, United Kingdom, South Africa, Kenya and many other countries – we have a thorough understanding of the complexity and risks associated with a vehicle conversion.
The fundamental key to delivering a high-quality, safe and legally compliant vehicle for our clients is our ongoing investment in engineering and compliance. Autogroup International has a team of over fifty (50) full time and university educated team members across our quality control, conformity of production, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, reverse engineering, and computer aided design departments. This team is then supported by hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment in the latest computer hardware, design and modelling software, 3D printing technology and 3D scanners.
A successful conversion business is not a shed in a dessert, with a bunch of random mechanics using stolen designs who are doing a slapdash conversion…
The underlying core for a safe and legally compliant vehicle conversion is a large professional team, investment in and compliance to global quality assurance standards such as Autogroup International’s ISO 9001: 2015 quality assurance which is audited by Bureau Veritas every year. The actual vehicle conversion itself must comply to a globally recognised standard – and for Autogroup International we comply to the Australian Design Rules (ADR) which are the Australian Federal Government’s tightly regulated and audited standards for road vehicle safety, anti-theft and emissions. Without both an audited ISO 9001 quality assurance and compliance to the Australian Design Rules – you are simply buying and driving your family around in a death trap…
The key teams which influence our design, safety and quality include:
ISO Department –
Our team of five (5) internal auditors focus solely on ensuring our manufacturing processes comply with our ISO 9001:2015 quality standards and to ensure we successfully pass our annual external ISO audits
Conformity of Production (COP) –Our team of eight (8) engineers working in Conformity of Production are focused on producing formal evidence of our ability to manufacture the parts required for a conversion that exactly match the specification and performance, and that they pass internal and external testing.
Quality Control –The highly experienced team of nine (9) Quality Control engineers review and approve every stage of the conversion process including all parts, all manufacturing works during the conversion and the final vehicle before it is shipped to a customer
Engineering – Our team of twenty-eight (28) mechanical and electrical engineers are focused on all elements of the right-hand drive conversion from reverse engineering, 3D scanning and 3D printing, new vehicle development and testing.
Autogroup International has for 30-years been the trusted global partner to supply a legally compliant and safe right-hand drive converted vehicle. This ‘hidden’ team of fifty highly experienced and educated colleagues along with our investment in ISO and ADR compliance plus our ongoing investment in technology and training – is why deliver such a high quality and safe vehicle.
And the simple questions to ask when buying a RHD converted vehicle, should be focused around the length on time in business, the size of their engineering and quality teams, compliance to global standards such as ISO and ADR; and then make sure you don’t risk your family with a dodgy conversion from a dodgy workshop.
