VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a 50:50 joint venture between Sweden's Volvo Group and homegrown Eicher Motors, will be introducing more than dozen products under PRO series in the light, medium and heavy duty vehicles.
Speaking on the sidelines of launching New Generation - PRO Series Range of Trucks in Chennai today Shyam Maller, senior vice president - Sales & Marketing, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd said that the company is in the process of completely renewing its offering with PRO series from 5-49 tonne categories.
While the 5-14 tonne will completely see a replacement with new range of PRO 1000 Series, the PRO 3000 Series are completely new set of light and medium vehicles with 10-15 tonne vehicles. The 3000 Series family will have three products, of which recently one product was launched and another two will be launched before next year.
The PRO 6000 Series will have three products this year, including tipper and the PRO 8000 Series, which is developed by Volvo for emerging markets. For the PRO 8000 Series the company will pick and choose the customers and this family will have four products, said Maller.
The PRO Series will not only change the products, but also company's philosophy, said Maller, who added that the new PRO series will push company's market share in the Indian CV industry.
Major USP of these products would be cabin, fuel efficiency, common rail engines and higher payloads, he said.
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He claimed that between January and May 2014, in the light and medium segment, the company increased its market share to 31.7 per cent from 30.4% and in the Bus category it was increased to 15.5% from 14.8%.
"The concerned is on the heavy duty, where we have lost market share," said Maller, who attributed the drop to growth in the geographies, where the company don't have its presence.
To address this gap the company plans to expand its network to 335 from the current 258.
Company's total sales during the first five months was 14,547 in the domestic market. Exports increased to 2,400 exports, compared to 800 units, an increase of around 200%.
Last year, (calender 2013) the company sold 40,000 units overall and hope to close 2014 with the same numbers or little over the same. Look at the possibilities of exporting pro-3000 series of trucks to global markets too in the near future and planning to expand its footprint in the global markets on the backdrop of Volvo's presence. The focus markets going to be Africa, South East Asia and West Asia.
VECV formed a marketing company, along with Volvo in Sri Lanka and said it would look at similar agreements in other parts of the countries.