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| Edited By: Neha Rishi |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 02:24 AM IST
After Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, Mahindra Navistar Automotive Ltd (MNAL) has joined the new-age trucks brandwagon with its 16-49 tonne medium and heavy commercial vehicles.
The joint venture between M&M and Navistar Inc of USA, which was forged four years ago, launched its first offering of 25 tonne and 31 tonne trucks on Monday.
According to Dee Kapur, president, Navistar Truck Group USA, the joint venture, which marks M&Ms entry into the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment, should be able to garner a 15-20% market share in 3-4 years. The investment made by the partners has been Rs 650 crore.
The company will begin with 50 dealerships and, in the next one year, another 150 will be added. 58 dealerships of light commercial vehicles will also retail the product, along with the tractor dealers and the 260 roadside assistance service centres.
Despite the competition, Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group, is confident that the CVs would soon make Mahindra No 1 in the range.
The USP of the new trucks, according to Pawan Goenka, president (automotive), M&M, would be lower cost per tonne kilometre.
MNAL will initially focus on launching its range of heavy trucks — the 12 tonne category variant will be launched some time in the next financial year. MNAL will also be showcasing its 40 tonne and 49 tonne heavy trucks at the auto expo that begins today.
In the commercial vehicle space, heavy trucks that have been gaining popularity because, with higher tonnage, comes better economies of scale. The operating cost per tonne km also comes down.
Also, due to better roads and highway development it is easier to deploy higher tonnage vehicles. So it makes sense for a company like M&M to first launch the heavy truck range as that’s where the growth is, especially in case of 25 and 31 tonne tipper category which is growing fast due to pick up in mining and construction activity, said Mahantesh Sabarad, senior analyst, Centrum Broking.
The entire range of Mahindra trucks will take at least 2-and-half-years to be launched.
However, the company will launch 7 variants of its existing products by the end of this calendar year. The retailing of the product will begin some time this financial year, said Rakesh Kalra, managing director, MNAL. The company will disclose the price of the trucks at the time of retailing them.
The production of the trucks has started in Chakan with 6 products ready so far. The company is in the final stages of fine tuning the products and MNAL does not want to strike the market with any perceivable flaw, said Goenka.
The initial production capacity for the trucks will be 8000-10,000 annually. At Chakan, the paint shop capacity is 3 lakh units and it’s a multi product plant.
MNAL is keen on exports and will in the next one year start exporting to Euro-3 equivalent markets with right hand drive and will also look at left hand drive markets later on. The countries on the export radar right now are the SARC, ASEAN countries, South Africa, South America and Gulf.
Kapur said the JV will neither export to North America where Navistar is strong nor use the US firm’s facility to assemble trucks. However, Navistar’s facility in South Africa and Brazil can be used to assemble trucks.
The Maxforce 7.2 ltr engine from Navistar is not the only offering from Navistar’s side, the company plans to bring in more engines from the Maxforce family for the upper band of LCVs.
