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Priyanka Vyas

New Delhi, June 17 Piaggio India plans to set up a petrol engine production facility for two-wheelers at its existing facility in Baramati, signalling that the company is inching closer to make its re-entry in the domestic motorcycles and scooters market. It is also exploring to produce three-wheeler petrol engines from the same facility for its passenger carrier.

“We have started construction work for our diesel engine plant which would be operational by the end of 2009. We are looking at the possibility of extending the facility to make petrol engines for two and three-wheelers,” said Mr Ravi Chopra, Piaggio India’s Chairman and Managing Director.

He declined to elaborate any further on how the company’s two-wheeler plan was shaping up, stating that it was being studied and the decision was likely to be taken in less than six months’ time.

Piaggio already has an agreement with Daihatsu to source components for gear boxes and the engine would be made by the company on its own. “We have an open mind. We are targeting to meet our petrol engine requirements for our three-wheeler domestically,” Mr Chopra revealed.

Currently, its passenger three-wheeler is being offered in CNG. But by launching a petrol variant, Piaggio wants to grab a share of Bajaj which is the most dominant player in the segment.

In the financial year 2007-08, the company sold 93, 981 passenger carriers, improving its share from 78,274 units, the previous fiscal.

At present, Piaggio sells a three-wheeler passenger and cargo vehicle, and a four-wheeler light commercial vehicle Ape Truk which competes with Tata’s Ace.

The company has a production capacity of two lakh units for three-wheeler and 24,000 units annually for light commercial vehicles.

“We have already started touching 800-1,000 units. In the coming few months, we should be able to increase the number to 1,500 units monthly,” the company’s Sales and Marketing Director, Mr Ashutosh Khosla, commented on the sales outlook for the year.

This would take the company’s capacity utilisation up to 80-85 per cent in the fiscal, he said.

In the current financial year, the company is also looking to sell 1.65 lakh units of its three-wheelers, up from 1.62 lakh units last year, Mr Khosla stated.

More Stories on : New Projects | Two/Three Wheelers

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