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MOTORINDIA
l
June 2012
in 2010. The market for light and
medium-duty trucks grew by 19 per
cent to 103,000 vehicles (87,000).
With 11 per cent of the total Indian
market for commercial vehicles, i.e.,
heavy-duty, medium-duty and light-
duty trucks as well as buses, Eicher is
India’s third largest manufacturer of
commercial vehicles.
The position is especially strong
in the light and medium-duty seg-
ment in which Eicher during 2011
had a market share of 30.5 per cent
(30.5). In heavy-duty trucks the
market share is developing in the
right direction, although from low
levels, since Eicher during 2011
launched its, new heavy-duty truck
program based on the cooperation in
VECV. During 2011, Eicher had 3.1
per cent of the market in the heavy-
duty segment compared to 2.0 per
cent the year before, and the overall
idea is to grow within heavy-duty
trucks in the coming years.
VECV’s facility at Pithampur is
in for rapid expansion. Part of the
new construction taking place is the
SEK 480 M investment in the pro-
duction of the Volvo Group’s new
global medium-duty engine. The in-
vestment gives the group a complete
facility in India for processing and
assembling the new medium-duty
engine, which will be introduced in
the group’s trucks and buses world-
wide in the next few years.
Through this investment, it will
be possible for the Volvo Group
to locate most of its production of
medium-duty engines to VECV’s
plant at Pithampur. VECV has an
established supplier base in India
and efficient purchasing channels,
and already today VECV produces
about 40,000 engines per year at the
existing plant. The group will now
have an engine platform that com-
bines the latest in Japanese technol-
ogy with India’s highly competitive
production cost. The investment in
Pithampur will result in an annual
production capacity of an additional
85,000 new medium duty base en-
gines.
In addition to production of the
base engine itself, the Pithampur
facility will also conduct final as-
sembly of engines for India and all
of Volvo Group’s global markets
with Euro III and Euro IV emission
requirements. By gathering base en-
gine production in India, it will be
possible for the company to meet
the group’s need for cost-efficient
medium-duty engines in Asia, while
also contributing to an increase in
its competitiveness in the medium-
duty segment in other markets. Pro-
vehicle zone
Focus on Truck industry