The Hindu Business Line : Piaggio set to roll out LCV in January

Top sources told Business Line that the company, which has been working on the vehicle for over a year, will roll out the vehicle, powered by a 1.3-litre engine. The vehicles, which are being extensively tested at its manufacturing facilities, have now been dispatched to select dealers to test run before the launch in mid-January, sources said.

"We will definitely be present in the sub-one segment with our product in the first half of 2007 but the timing of the launch is a matter of strategy," Piaggio Vehicles Managing Director, Mr Ravi Chopra, told Business Line. "With the market for this segment growing at 20 per cent, there is plenty of room in this segment for at least a couple of more player," he added.

Mr Chopra said the company is ready with the product and has installed capacities of 36,000 vehicles at its Baramati-based manufacturing facilities. "The modular nature of the production facilities ensure that we can ramp up depending on the need in the market," Mr Chopra said.

Ace pricing

The company is believed to be aiming at the Rs 2.25-lakh price tag for the product against the Tata Ace, which is currently available on road at Rs 2.80 lakhs. "The proposition is to give more power and features at a lower cost, which will pull in the consumers in this extremely price sensitive market," sources said.

Piaggio currently manufactures and sells only three-wheelers in India. The company, incidentally, worked on launching the country's first quadricycle for over two years but had to abandon the efforts following the Government's failure to freeze its policy on categorising the product in the automobile industry.

Tata Motors, which created the sub-tonne segment in India, is meanwhile ramping up capacities at its Pune facilities to over 60,000 units and is setting up a dedicated plant for the Ace at Uttaranchal with capacities of twolakh units.

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