Force Motors mulls 3rd plant for smaller trucks

Force Motors, the Pune-based LCV manufacturer, is planning to set up a third manufacturing facility to produce smaller trucks. The company has said it would invest around Rs 400 crore in the proposed greenfield facility, as part of its Rs 1,000-crore investment over the next three years.

Meanwhile, the company's premium sports utility vehicle (SUV) will be launched in March and its multi-utility vehicles (MUVs) in 2012. Besides, some of its existing products will be upgraded, according to a senior company representative.

Prasan Firodia, managing director, Force Motors Ltd, said that the company was planning to set up a greenfield facility to manufacture small trucks 'Trump', which was launched six months back.

“We are also planning to expand our offerings in this segment by launching two more new products by mid-2012,” he said. The new facility will attract an investment of around Rs 350-400 crore and will have an initial capacity of 100,000 vehicles.

“We will take a final call on the location in the first quarter of next year. One of the options is South India,” said Firodia.

Firodia said the launch of its SUV was postponed from December 2010 as setting up of exclusive dealership, team and others were getting delayed. To start with, the company is planning to appoint 45 dealers. “This segment is totally new to us and we have to set up a completely new vertical including new dealers, internal team in the office,” he said.

The product will be priced at around Rs 12 lakh. Currently the market is estimated to be around 70,000 vehicles a year.

The company is also investing around Rs 200 crore for the proposed foray, which includes setting up a new plant at Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, with an initial capacity of 12,000 units a year, which can be doubled, said Firodia.

“The vehicle will have four-cylinder 2.2-litre engine, for which the company has signed a licence agreement with Mercedes-Benz, has low emission levels and is fuel efficient,” Firodia said. It complies with Bharat Stage IV emission norms and the engine plant is capable of upgrading to Bharat Stage V, he added.

The company also roped in Lotus Engineering, a British consulting firm for finetuning of the vehicle's performance. Firodia said the company has set a target to close the current fiscal with a turnover of Rs 1,900 crore as compared to around Rs 1,000 crore last year.

The company also said that it would launch new Traveller next month with a new engine and gear box with noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH) control and the upgraded Tempo Trax will be launched by 2011-end. Force Motors is the manufacturer of Tempo and Matador under the brand name Bajaj Tempo.