Truck maker Asia Motor Works is all set to introduce a 16-tonne tipper in the market, which it will do at the Excon exhibition in Bangalore on November 23. The product marks the jump of the 4-year-old company from a ‘niche' to ‘volume' segment.

AMW, a company blessed by the Essar Group, has been selling trucks in the heavy duty segment. It has been selling tipper vehicles in three capacities — 25 tonne, 31 tonne and 49 tonne. Last year, AMW sold around 6,000 vehicles and going by the current rate of about 1,000 vehicles a month, it expects to double the sales this year.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, the company's Managing Director and CEO, Mr Anirudh Bhuwalka, said that at present AMW has 17 products on the roads, and would have 22 by the end of the current financial year. Today, some 22,000 trucks made by the company (at its plant in Bhuj) ply on the roads, he said.

More product launches are in the offing and the market would get a glimpse of them at the Delhi Auto Expo, early next year, but would remain in the medium and heavy duty range. “The 16 to 49-tonne range is our home,” Mr A. Ramasubramanian, President, AMW said, but added that in the long-run, AMW would produce the full range of commercial vehicles.

Claims superiority

Mr Bhuwalka and Mr Ramasubramanian said in the segment above 25 tonnes, there is no particular incumbent advantage and AMW has been able to make inroads in the markets of other established players like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland.

They said AMW's products had some distinguishing features and make the vehicles superior to competition. Company officials told a team from Chennai who visited the Bhuj plant on Friday that all their products came with air-conditioned cabins and bogey suspension. They noted that the frame of the chassis was twin layered, a ‘double C' structure, that made the frame stronger. Furthermore, the chassis extends a few inches in the front of the vehicle above the bumper. This feature, plus a bank of cross beams, protects the engine and gear box from damage in case of an accident. Another uniqueness, the officials claimed, was the ‘fully-factory built' vehicles, as opposed to selling only the chassis and leaving it to the buyer to build the body. Selling a fully-built vehicle enables the buyer to secure loans for a more value-added product, and also start operating the vehicle soon after its purchase.

Incidentally, the engines and power-trains are bought from Cummins and ZF, respectively. Mr Bhuwalka said makers of these products have the advantage of scale, which a manufacturer like AMW would never get if it makes them in-house.

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