Eicher Trucks & Buses, a part of VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd., is targeting 50% sales growth this year to gain market share in the commercial vehicle space, said a top company executive.
“Last year, we sold 1,000 units a month and the move is to sell 1,500 units a month this year,” Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles, said on the sidelines of a product introduction event in Mumbai.
The company on Wednesday introduced two heavy duty trucks in the 49 tonnage (Pro 6049) and 41 tonnage (Pro 6041) capacity to cater to the needs of transporters increasingly switching over to higher tonnage trucks for economic reasons.
These trucks of the Pro 6000 series are priced at approximately ₹30 lakh and are targeted at large transporters of cement, steel and other long haul cargo.
‘High targets’
“We have high targets for this year and these two trucks will contribute to the target in good amount,” Mr. Aggarwal said. He said the 49 tonnage truck with 250 HP would modernise the tractor segment in the country, while the 41 tonnage truck, India’s first of its kind, would find more buyers. “Transporters operating 37 tonnage trucks will upgrade to 41 tonnage segment and we know that the competition will catch up very fast,” Mr. Aggarwal said. He said the two new trucks were technologically superior and provided better value proposition to customers.
The Eicher range of trucks, which were developed in technical collaboration with Volvo, were gaining in popularity over the years for their technology, durability and fuel efficiency, Mr. Aggarwal said. Last year, the company had 32% market share in the light to medium (5 to 15 tons) commercial vehicle segment, while it had 4.6% market share in the heavy trucks segment. In the bus segment, the company had a market share of 17.2%. Mr. Aggarwal declined to quantify this year’s targeted market share stating the company was interested only on higher volumes.
As the market for commercial vehicles is growing, the company is planning to set up a new manufacturing plant and a board approval is expected next month. Mr. Aggarwal said the new plant with an initial investment of ₹300 crore would start production in two years.
He said the company had been investing ₹400 crore to ₹500 crore a year and this rate of investment would continue in the coming years. The company which is exporting 15% of its production to Indonesia and Africa is planning to increase the ratio to 20% as it had identified new markets in the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa, Mr. Aggarwal said.