Volvo-Eicher JV eyes 15% pie of CV market

The company launched its Pro1000 and Pro3000 series of light and medium duty trucks for the AP market today

VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a 50:50 joint venture between Sweden’s Volvo Group and homegrown Eicher Motors, is aiming at garnering a 15 per cent share of the domestic commercial vehicle (CV) market this year, as against 13.8 per cent in 2013, according to senior vice-president Shyam Maller.

Launching the JV firm’s new Pro1000 and Pro3000 series of light and medium duty trucks in the Andhra Pradesh market on Monday, he said the Pro3000 medium duty truck series would now replace the Eicher’s E2 Plus range, which was currently available in 5-to-14 tonne capacities.

“We are planning to launch products progressively. The next product that will come in is a 9.5-tonne truck, and thereafter a 31-tonne truck under the Pro6000 series early next month, while the Skyline Pro buses will hit the market in a couple of months from now,” he said.

In the domestic CV market, close to 135,000 16-to-49-tonne trucks, 70,000 5-to-14-tonne trucks and around 60,000 buses were sold last year. VECV currently has a 34 per cent share in the light and medium duty (L&MD) truck segment, close to six per cent in heavy duty truck category and 15 per cent in the 5-to-15-tonne bus segment this year.

Stating that VECV had sold 44,000 vehicles in the 2013 fiscal, Maller said the company was expecting an overall five per cent volume growth this year. On the exports front, he said the company was readying the Pro series products for the overseas markets. The company has exported 1,800 vehicles during January-April this year.

“After the traditional strength markets (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh), we are looking at the American and West Asian markets for exports,” he said, adding exports were predominantly propelled by Bangladesh.

To a query on whether the Supreme Court's ban on mining has had any impact on the truck industry, Maller replied in the affirmative. "The mining ban has really killed the entire demand for mining trucks. The partial lifting of ban on two million tonne in Goa is definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. We are also seeing some glimmer of hope in northern Karnataka and parts of Odisha where there are mines with legal permits," he added.