Commercial vehicle maker Force Motors has said that it is still going ahead with its Rs. 1,000-crore investment which it had announced a year earlier despite general industry slowdown. It is investing the amount across its entire value chain, including brand-building and engineering. The three-year program covers setting up of a new engine and a gear box plant at Pithampur and an engine technology centre in Pune which is accredited by ARAI.
Interacting with MOTORINDIA Managing Editor and Publisher R. Natarajan recently, Mr. Prasan Firodia, Managing Director, Force Motors, disclosed: “Force Motors operating in the light commercial vehicle and passenger carrier segments is probably the largest ambulance maker in the country and has registered a growth of almost 12 per cent in this segment. In passenger vehicles, we continue having a market leadership position for our Traveller vehicles. We have developed a lot of new variants in this segment which is helping us grow. Our school buses have also started giving us good returns.”
The company’s off-road vehicle, Force Gurkha, a highly niche product, is gaining traction and has shown good results in the current fiscal. For the past two consecutive years, Force has significantly increased its volumes in agricultural vehicles. Its tractors, though constituting a small segment, have registered a growth of almost 55 per cent over the last year. In the MUV segment, its Trax vehicles have been performing quite well and are leading the market.
Component business
Discussing the group’s engineering activities, he said a new engine plant is under commissioning at Chennai, which will be a fully dedicated facility for BMW. “We will assemble and test the engines at this plant. From January 2015, all BMW cars in India will have engines assembled by Force Motors. Installations, testing and commissioning of equipment are currently on the plant. We are very happy to have won the contract”. The group has already been supplying all engines and axles for Mercedes Benz and some critical components for Bharat Benz.”
The Firodia Group is now setting up a facility for aluminium cylinder heads at Dewas in Madhya Pradesh with a capacity to produce one million pieces which would be a single source to Ford’s Sanand facility for its dragon engines. The plant is a 50-50 joint venture between the Pune-based Jaya Hind Industries, also a Firodia Group company, and Montupet SA of France. The group is also coming up with a new facility at Chakan near Pune for manufacturing engines and axles exclusively for Daimler for its Mercedes cars.
