India’s medium and heavy commercial vehicle industry is set to graduate to new standards

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of performance, efficiency and operating economics in the coming years, driven by tightening of regulatory norms on safety and emissions as well as the aggressive drive of global OEMs here.

With the robust medium to long-term outlook for the domestic truck industry in view of the strong economic activity and infrastructure development, besides increasing need for efficient transport system, the country has been attracting several international OEMs.

“The rampant overloading to the tune of 50-100 per cent on multi axle vehicles and increasing diesel prices besides road development have been the driver of growth for heavy truck industry in the country,” said SP Singh, coordinator, Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training.

In the past, international OEMs were unable to make a serious dent in the Indian market. However, the trends have changed with their entry on their own or through JVs with domestic firms. While Germany’s Daimler has decided to go it alone after pulling out from a JV with Hero Group, other JVs include Mahindra’s JV with Navistar; Eicher Motors with Volvo; and Force Motors with MAN.

The medium and heavy commercial vehicle industry has been dominated by two players —Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland (ALL) — with a combined market share of about 86 per cent with total volumes of 322,788 units for 2010-11.

However, with new entrants charting out aggressive product and dealer strategies, existing players will face stiff competition, though they are already preparing for competition with the launch of new vehicle platforms and engine ranges to face the global OEMs, which are armed with superior technology.

Over the next couple of years, the domestic medium and heavy market will be flooded with world-class products by these firms. However, ALL has come out with its new U-truck range, while Tata Motors has unveiled the Prima trucks in view of the emerging competition. “In the past few years, we have made significant investment in R&D. We have actually doubled our R&D spend,” said Vinod Dasari, MD, Ashok Leyland, which will fully migrate to the U-truck platform from its traditional chassis platform in the next 18 months.

The much talked about recent development was the launch of new CV brand ‘Bharatbenz’ for the Indian market by world’s largest truck maker, Daimler. The moved signaled its aggressive strategy for a long-term presence in the Indian CV market. Perhaps, it is the first time that Daimler is launching a brand for a country. “The Indian industry will witness adoption of global practices with the entry of players like Daimler,” said Singh.

With committed investments of Rs 4,400 crore in manufacturing operations here, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) will start rolling out heavy trucks by next year.

VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), an equal JV between Eicher Motors and Volvo Group, has been giving strong thrust on heavy duty segment after the launch of VE range of vehicles, which will be a full upgrade of its heavy duty range, last year. It intends to increase sales of heavy trucks from about 500 units a month to 1,000 units.

Man Force Trucks, a 50:50 JV between Force Motors and German MAN Nutzfahrzeuge for heavy commercial vehicle business, is about to complete its product realignment and is preparing aggressive strategy with new range of engine series and vehicles for the Indian market. Mahindra Navistar, a 51:49 JV between M&M and US-based Navistar, is also launching a slew of products this year.