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Force Motors is planning to launch an 8-9 seater premium Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) by next year. This is part of a new passenger vehicle portfolio that the company is working on, which includes a new Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) scheduled for launch next month.
At present, the Pune-based company only makes small and medium-sized commercial vehicles (CVs), vans and tractors. The company's foray into this new segment is part of a strategy to join the top rung of domestic automakers like Tata and Mahindra, thereby building a diversified domestic automotive brand.
“We will launch a van (an MPV) by next year for the personalised vehicles space, targeted towards the corporate travel, hospitality sector and large Indian families. This will seat up to eight people and will be an upmarket vehicle. It could use the same engine as the SUV,” Force Motors' Managing Director, Mr Prasan Firodia, told Business Line .
SUV Pricing
The first product from the new range, the SUV, is expected to be priced in the Rs 12-14 lakh range. This will be followed up with a rugged offroader – ‘Gurkha' – about six months after. While the SUV is expected to compete against the Mahindra Scorpio, the Gurkha will target the Mahindra Thar's market. Meanwhile, the MPV will compete with products like the Toyota Innova and Mahindra Xylo.
“We have been in the CV segment for the last 50-60 years, for us a long-term strategy is to be a major player in the van segment. If we do well in passenger vehicles, it will have a huge positive rub off on our existing products in terms of the ‘Force' brand,” he said.
The SUV would have a Mercedes-Benz designed driveline (engine and transmission), while the vehicle dynamics (ride and handling) have been developed in collaboration with Lotus Engineering from the UK. It would sport a 2.2 litre turbo-diesel engine delivering 140 bhp of power. In terms of vehicle size, the SUV is comparable to the Ford Endeavour.
“On the SUV project, we have invested about Rs 150 crore. We decided to get into the segment as we had a concept (SUV) available at a short time frame, plus the investment was very attractive from our perspective. We're looking for a launch around June,” said Mr Firodia.
The company has also started a new dealership network for the passenger vehicle range. In 2011, it expects to have 25 dealer facilities across the country. The company hopes to sell 4,000 vehicles in the first year, where the market size is 60,000 units, he said.
Force Motors makes tractors, large vans like the Traveller and light CVs under the Trump brand. It also assembles engines for Mercedes-Benz under contract.
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