Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV) – the 50:50 JV between Sweden’s Volvo Group and India’s Eicher Motors – is looking to garner higher market share in the heavier trucks driven by the new Pro series. The Indo Swedish CV maker, which has a wide spectrum of vehicles in the 4.9 tonne -49 tonne segments, has maintained that heavy duty trucks will be their primary focus for growth. At present, VECV commands a market share of 33-34% in 5-15 tonne truck segment, 16% in buses and 6.5% in HDT segment. The leading home-grown CV maker has recently announced that it will be investing Rs. 400 crores during 2016-17, towards capacity expansion, new product lines and other novel initiatives.
Interacting with MOTORINDIA exclusively at his Corporate Office in Gurgaon, Mr. Vinod Aggarwal, Chief Executive Officer, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd., stated: “Our objective is to outpace the industry and grow our market share. We are concentrating on new products and planning better penetration of the market through more channel partners. The Eicher Pro Series of trucks has given a huge fillip to our sales”.
Talking about the Key Governing factors that will be driving volumes, Mr. Aggarwal stated: “Economic Growth, Infrastructure push by the Government, rising income levels, positive sentiments owing to an expected good monsoon, burgeoning rural economy, etc., will give a major boost to the domestic commercial vehicle industry. The CV (industry) is directly linked to the state of the economy.”
When asked the segment on which it will be focusing aggressively, Mr. Aggarwal asserted: “In terms of expanding our product spread, we are bullish on all segments – light and medium trucks, heavy duty trucks, and buses. Having said that, HDT segment should do better as a lot of investments will happen in the infrastructure sector. As the construction activities are accelerating, tipper segment would witness considerable growth, which was at its peak at 66,000 units in 2011 whereas it was around 42,000 in 2015. Moreover, there is a lot happening on the road projects. New projects like ‘Bharat Mala’ and ‘Sagar Mala’ apart from the Governments’ intent on preparing a grid of 27 horizontal and vertical national highway corridors at a distance of 250 km crisscrossing the country. If all these initiatives materialize, there will be a lot more movement of construction trucks. In the long run, coal mining is also going to do better as there is a thrust on production and a faster movement from pit to the power plans. As per earlier projections by GOI, coal production should rise to 1 billion tonnes by Coal India by 2020 and another 500 million tonnes by other entities. It was 639 million tonnes in FY 2015-16. There will also be more growth opportunities arising from newly emerging sectors like E-Commerce.”
When queried about the new products and solutions lined up in the HCV segment, Mr. Aggarwal stated: “We have already introduced three new models in the last three months. We have recently launched 10X2 37-tonne gross vehicle weight PRO 6037 truck. And around the same time, we have also launched PRO 1110XP which is equipped with a 6-speed transmission. Along with this, we have also launched PRO 1049, which is a 4.9 tonne truck. Going forward, we will continue to launch more variants and models in FY17. Apart from new products, we are also bringing in futuristic technologies in our product lines. The Eicher Pro series brings in the advanced technology of Volvo Group along with frugal engineering of Eicher. We have also recently introduced telematics solution ‘Eicher Live’’ in our Pro 6000 and Pro 8000 trucks. ‘Eicher Live’ provides real time dashboard data analytics of the fleet, tracking most important factors including fuel management and fault identification thus allowing customers to plan maintenance. Eicher Live’s dynamic intelligence helps maximize productivity and profitability. Besides, our R&D centre at Pithampur is now working on Euro VI-specific products, which is expected from April 1, 2020.”
When quizzed about its focus on the bus segment, he revealed, “Intelligent Transportation system, AMT, better suspension, Light-weighting, etc., will be the governing factors in this segment. We have also come out with a slew of technological innovations in these vehicles.”
Leveraging on the ‘Make-in-India’ by the PM, VECV is actively looking to ship out its products to South Africa, South East Asia and other emerging markets. “Exports of Euro-6 compliant engines to Volvo Group is one of the finest examples of make in India,” noted Mr. Aggarwal.
Apart from growth opportunities, the CV industry is also grappling with a lot of challenges. As Mr. Aggarwal pointed out, “GST introduction will improve efficiency in the distribution network. Besides, Road infrastructure development will bring in more productivity. Interest rates are still high which need to go down further.”
Meanwhile, the company is also working with all large fleet operators. Mr. Aggarwal added: “We are focussing on reduction in the overall cost of ownership for Fleet operators. We regularly demonstrate to our customers that if he uses trucks in the right manner, has a properly trained driver, properly loads the vehicle, and ensures regular servicing of the vehicle, he can improve operational efficiency of his fleet.”
Spelling out VECV’s vision for 2020, Mr. Aggarwal concluded by saying, “Our vision is to drive modernization in commercial transportation in India and the developing world. In line with our vision, we will continue to bring in better technology and evolve as technology leaders. For example the telematics that we have introduced in our trucks is one of the most advanced telematics technology in the country. We are in a position to bring in and introduce more and more relevant technologies in a frugal manner to meet India-specific needs.”