Delphi CEO: "I Like Our Future!"

"This is the new Delphi. Delphi's back. We're glad to be back."--Delphi CEO Rodney O'Neal.

The CEO of auto supplier Delphi says the auto supplier has been transformed from a company moving toward irrelevance, into a growth company with positive cash, and double-digit margins.

"We're better," said Rodney O'Neal. "We're stronger. We're relevant. I like our future."

O'Neal telling the Detroit Economic Club that Delphi's nearly five year trip through bankruptcy has made his company more global in nature—with 95 per cent of its employees outside the United States—and more customer focused.

"It's stable. It's predictable. That's what people like me like."

During the bankruptcy process, Delphi closed and sold plants, shed jobs, and transferred its salaried pension burdens to the federal government, resulting in lower benefits for white-collar retirees. Those retirees are now suing to try to get those benefits back.

With Delphi was at the brink, O'Neal said difficult decisions had to be made, and the "toll was extraordinary."

"It was probably the recognition that some o the promises made to our current and previous employees could not be kept," said O'Neal when asked about the most difficult part of Delphi's bankruptcy. "A promise can only be kept if you have the means to keep it."

Moving forward, Delphi plans to distinguish itself with technology, focusing on safety, connectivity and environmentally friendliness.

Delphi today announcing that it's developing new technology that would allow electric vehicles to recharge wirelessly.

Delphi is partnering with WiTricity, a tech company. The system being worked on now can already transfer over 3,300 watts — enough to fully charge an electric car at the same rate as most residential plug-in chargers.

"Charging an electric car should be as easy as parking it in your garage or parking spot," said Eric Giler, chief executive officer of WiTricity, in a statement. "WiTricity's high efficiency wireless energy transfer technology is ideally suited for electric vehicle charging, and our partnership with Delphi will help to quickly get this technology deployed in OEM vehicles and infrastructure projects worldwide."

The system Delphi is working on, would allow customers to park their vehicle over an energy source, and the vehicle would recharge without connections or wires.

"I think making anything simple is important to the consumer," O'Neal told WWJ AutoBeat Reporter Jeff Gilbert. "But, not having to worry about cords. Not having to have your vehicle aligned to one side or another to do your charging. It has its place in the market."

O'Neal not saying when this system would be ready for the market. But he says, for it to be viable, it has to be available soon, because we're starting to see electric vehicles enter the market.

Delphi is not in a hurry to launch a public sale of stock. O'Neal only saying that they will do that when the time is right and the company is ready.

"The market has to ready, too," he said. "It's a little choppy out there right now, in terms of, forgetting auto, IPO's in general."

The overall climate for suppliers remains challenging, says O'Neal, who says there is still too much capacity. He predicted there would be more "rationalization," with some suppliers merging and others going out of business.

But still, the Delphi CEO says things are getting better, and many of the worst fears were not realized.

"I don't think it's nearly the crises we all thought it was going to be a year ago when it really looked bad."