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The December quarter brought cheer to VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd (VECV), as the equal joint venture between Eicher Motors Ltd and the Volvo Group achieved much-awaited gains in the heavy truck segment along with growth in the overall truck market.
Though VECV has been making good progress in the light and medium truck segment (3.5-15 tonnes), the heavy truck segment was witnessing tepid progress despite the launch of modern models with the technology from Swedish partner Volvo.
The company was hoping to crack the heavy duty market in the BS-VI era with its experience in the manufacture and supply of Volvo’s Euro 6 engines to units outside the country.
Last quarter, while the truck market saw good recovery, VECV also witnessed significant gains in heavy truck sales. These rose a whopping 52 per cent at 2,494 units during the December quarter, when compared with the year-ago period. Its light and medium trucks sales grew 11 per cent at 7,897 units.
As a result of strong growth, the company’s market share in the heavy truck segment also grew, from 5 per cent last year to 7 per cent plus now.
Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO of VECV, said two things proved to be game-changers in its heavy truck success story. These are the proven BS-VI technology of the Volvo Group and the ongoing modernisation in the Indian truck industry.
Mature BS-VI tech
“We offer much better and more mature BS-VI technology in our trucks. We have been supplying Euro 6 engines to Volvo Group for the past seven years. The learnings from this have been incorporated in our BS-VI models. Also, more and more truck modernisation is happening in the industry now. We will benefit due to these and we hope to sustain this momentum,” he added.
Primarily, multi-axle trucks in the 28 tonne and 35 tonne ranges are driving the demand. With a pick-up in coal production and improving manufacturing output, VECV sees the demand for heavy trucks moving northward, going forward. Tippers are already doing well due to strong revival in construction activity.
To drive growth and sustain it going forward, VECV has also put in place more measures to offer low cost of ownership for its modern trucks.
“We are now selling 100 per cent connected trucks — completely factory-fitted advanced telematics solutions. We don’t sell any truck or bus without this ‘Eicher Live’ solution,” said Aggarwal.
Service support
VECV has set up a 24/7 Uptime Centre at Pithampur (Madhya Pradesh) for service support with a team of diagnostic experts offering remote diagnostics, predictive diagnostics and specialised field support to all BS-VI Eicher vehicles.
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