After delivering forgettable volumes in the last calendar year, most of the commercial vehiclemaking companies remain upbeat on 2010. This is primarily on account of multiple factors like JNNURM scheme, stimulus by the government, booming infrastructure sector and its allied industries, lenient financing, revival in the economy, new and world-class launches, to name a few.
While unveiling its models at the Auto Expo, companies like Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, and Volvo (both truck and bus making divisions), and the new entrant Mahindra Navistar, are expecting a double digit growth on the back of 8 per cent GDP growth expected by the government. Furthermore, sales of trucks and buses, have gone up by 12.4 per cent in the first eight months to November of the current fiscal year from a 22 percent fall in 2008/09 and firms expect the momentum to get stronger.
Tata Motors, the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the country anticipates double-digit growth in sales in 2010-11. Addressing a press conference at the Auto Expo in New Delhi, Ravi Pisharody, president – Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, said that "Clearly we had a very robust period in the last few months. Apart from strong economic fundamentals, the demand had been helped by the availability of finance." He also stated, "The CV financing was available from February-March and the light commercial vehicle segment responded almost immediately. There was a pending demand for the LCVs, but being driven by entrepreneurs, the segment was waiting for liquidity to return to the market. The medium and heavy commercial vehicles took a little longer to pick up, but this was more because of macro-economic factors; the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors were yet to pick up. He also said that the manufacturing sector picked up in July-August and investments started flowing into the infrastructure sector, because of which sales in the medium and heavy truck segment were also picking up. "We see that continuing and we expect the commercial vehicle business to be strong over the next 12 months," said Pisharody.
Ashok Leyland, the second-largest firm in this industry, said it would clock double-digit growth in 2010/11, after selling over 63,000 units in the current year to March, a third more than in 2008/09.
Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicle (VECV), a joint venture of Eicher Motors and Sweden's Volvo Group, Rs. 500 crore on enhancing its operations which includes capacity expansion, developing new engine technology and platforms, scaling its its distribution network, etc, as claimed by media reports, quoting company managing director and chief executive Siddhartha Lal who spoke at the tenth Auto Expo at New Delhi on Tuesday. VECV, which which currently rolls out 50,000 vehicles per annum, is aiming a monthly target of 1,000 vehicles from next year. The company would invest a part of the money on developing new engine technology for its range of commercial vehicles and is aiming at 15-20 per cent share in the heavy-duty segment in five years with the launch of the VE series of trucks. Lal also said that the company would expand production capacity and develop new engine technology for commercial vehicles as it planned to raise its production capacity to one lakh units per annum by 2015.
In a move to further strengthen the Volvo city bus experience and also re-iterate the company's stance on eco-efficiency, Volvo Buses has introduced the CNG bus for the Indian market. Developed on the strong technology and comfort of the Volvo city bus, this CNG variant is built in India for India by a highly experienced team of experts from Sweden and India.
A senior official of the company said it is upbeat on domestic as well as the overseas markets. "We're looking at starting exports by the end of next year," said Akash Passey, managing director of Volvo Buses India Pvt. Ltd. The company plans to tap markets in West Asia and Africa. He added that the labour costs are usually 30-35 per cent lower in India than in developed countries and this alone would allow it to price its buses competitively. Volvo already exports buses to India's neighbours, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and has sent around 200 buses since it set up shop in India eight years ago. Initially, the company plans to start exporting multi-axle buses and pack in 53 seats, eight more than buses usually have. The extra seats allow fleet operators to recover fuel costs on an inter-city journey.
Tata Motors, the largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in the country anticipates double-digit growth in sales in 2010-11. Addressing a press conference at the Auto Expo in New Delhi, Ravi Pisharody, president – Commercial Vehicles Business Unit, said that "Clearly we had a very robust period in the last few months. Apart from strong economic fundamentals, the demand had been helped by the availability of finance." He also stated, "The CV financing was available from February-March and the light commercial vehicle segment responded almost immediately. There was a pending demand for the LCVs, but being driven by entrepreneurs, the segment was waiting for liquidity to return to the market. The medium and heavy commercial vehicles took a little longer to pick up, but this was more because of macro-economic factors; the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors were yet to pick up. He also said that the manufacturing sector picked up in July-August and investments started flowing into the infrastructure sector, because of which sales in the medium and heavy truck segment were also picking up. "We see that continuing and we expect the commercial vehicle business to be strong over the next 12 months," said Pisharody.
Ashok Leyland, the second-largest firm in this industry, said it would clock double-digit growth in 2010/11, after selling over 63,000 units in the current year to March, a third more than in 2008/09.
Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicle (VECV), a joint venture of Eicher Motors and Sweden's Volvo Group, Rs. 500 crore on enhancing its operations which includes capacity expansion, developing new engine technology and platforms, scaling its its distribution network, etc, as claimed by media reports, quoting company managing director and chief executive Siddhartha Lal who spoke at the tenth Auto Expo at New Delhi on Tuesday. VECV, which which currently rolls out 50,000 vehicles per annum, is aiming a monthly target of 1,000 vehicles from next year. The company would invest a part of the money on developing new engine technology for its range of commercial vehicles and is aiming at 15-20 per cent share in the heavy-duty segment in five years with the launch of the VE series of trucks. Lal also said that the company would expand production capacity and develop new engine technology for commercial vehicles as it planned to raise its production capacity to one lakh units per annum by 2015.
In a move to further strengthen the Volvo city bus experience and also re-iterate the company's stance on eco-efficiency, Volvo Buses has introduced the CNG bus for the Indian market. Developed on the strong technology and comfort of the Volvo city bus, this CNG variant is built in India for India by a highly experienced team of experts from Sweden and India.
A senior official of the company said it is upbeat on domestic as well as the overseas markets. "We're looking at starting exports by the end of next year," said Akash Passey, managing director of Volvo Buses India Pvt. Ltd. The company plans to tap markets in West Asia and Africa. He added that the labour costs are usually 30-35 per cent lower in India than in developed countries and this alone would allow it to price its buses competitively. Volvo already exports buses to India's neighbours, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and has sent around 200 buses since it set up shop in India eight years ago. Initially, the company plans to start exporting multi-axle buses and pack in 53 seats, eight more than buses usually have. The extra seats allow fleet operators to recover fuel costs on an inter-city journey.
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