Hindustan Motors Rolls Out Rural Transport Vehicle

Automobile major Hindustan Motors yesterday rolled out its first rural transport vehicle, HM RTV, from its Pithampur unit. The vehicle is being manufactured in technical collaboration with Australia-based Oka Motor Company and has been priced at Rs 3.47 lakh.

HM RTV is a multi-purpose, all-terrain heavy duty vehicle designed and customised for driving conditions in rural India. The vehicle with a rear wheel drive has a four cylinder 1995cc, 56HP fuel-efficient diesel engine and can carry a payload of up to two tonne.

Another key feature of the rural transport vehicle is the syncromeshed gearbox with four high and four low gears which assist the vehicle to run at a continuous low speed of five km per hour on rural dirt tracks and at a cruising speed of 90km per hour on normal roads.

 

In keeping with its policy of being customer focused rather than competitor driven, the company is launching models for various segments. The models will be marketed through three dedicated marketing networks --blue line, red line and the green line.

Besides, the company is also planning to undertake sales promotion schemes for the HM RTV aimed at specific target segments followed by personal calls by sales personnel with presentations in vernacular languages.

Demand for RTV is estimated to grow at a rate of five per cent per annum.

The company's Pithampur plant in Madhya Pradesh, set up at an estimated cost of Rs 44 crore, will produce 7,000 RTVs per annum. Once the project takes off, the company proposes aggressive expansion of capacities.

According to R Santhanam, executive vice-president, Hindustan Motors: "We have been working on the RTV project for the last three years and have been closely involved with the vendors to achieve 100 per cent indigenisation. In fact, the gear-box and the transmission will be manufactured at the company's Pithampur plant."