M&M likely to roll out Navistar from Chakan

Auto major Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) is likely to roll out its commercial vehicle Mahindra Navistar from the greenfield manufacturing facility at Chakan in Maharashtra soon, a top company official said here today.

"After Maxximo, Mahindra Navistar is likely to be rolled out from our facility at Chakan (spread across 650 acres), where all the expansion plans have been lined up," M&M Senior Vice President Sales and Customer Care Automotive Arun Malhotra said.

Mahindra Navistar Automotive is a 51:49 joint venture between M&M and Navistar Inc. US and will manufacture entire spectrum of commercial vehicles ranging between 3.5 tonnes and 49 tonnes capacity, company portal stated.

"The facility at Chakan at present, produces 2,000 to 2,500 units of 'Maxximo', our mini-truck, and there is an ample scope for ramping up it's capacity," Malhotra said.

In an automotive space, mini-truck has been the fastest growing segment with compound annual growth rate of 21 per cent, over the last three years, he said.

Malhotra was here to launch Maxximo in Gujarat.

"We expect a double digit growth to continue in this segment in the next fiscal, so it's an important segment, till now has been dominated by Tata Ace," Malhotra said.

Around 1.20 lakh units were sold in the mini-truck segment this year, and is expected to grow by 21 per cent.

M&M grew by 31 per cent in first 10 months (April to January) of the fiscal as compared to growth in corresponding period a year ago, which has been the highest so far, he said.

Referring to company's plans for Gujarat, Malhotra said, the 14 odd dealers of M&M in Gujarat have about 20 outlets here. There are plans to double the number of outlets in a phased manner, as the company focuses on rural market penetration.

For expanding the finance outreach in Gujarat, the company has tied up with Mahindra Finance, and groups like Cholamandalam and IndusInd Bank, besides few nationalised banks, Malhotra said.