Czech heavy truck manufacturer, Tatra AS, which has forged a 50:50 joint venture with Venus Udyog, plans to sell its vehicles in the Indian market at Rs 22 lakh a unit.
The facility, being set up at Hosur near Bangalore, will have a capacity of 1,000 trucks a year. The vehicles are slated to roll out in the first quarter of the next fiscal. The companys heavy-duty 250hp model, developed especially for India, will be officially launched at the AutoExpo being organised in New Delhi in January. The company would like to enter the highway segment later, said Jojo Alexander, director, Venus Projects, the London-based NRI-owned holding company of Venus Udyog India. To begin with, the vehicles will have a 30 per cent indigenous component level. This will be raised to 70 per cent in the years to come. However, the company will manufacture the axle and the engine in the Czech Republic only.
The high import content will mean a forx outgo of Rs 100 crore a year. However the company intends to make the project forex-neutral by exporting vehicles and spare parts to neighbouring countries, mainly those which have a traffic system similar to India as the vehicles produced here will have right-hand drive.
Its total investment is estimated at Rs 50 crore in the first three years, of which Rs 20 crore will be needed to get the project off the ground.
Skoda group sales have been falling steadily since the collapse of the Russian and East European market. Last year it sold a mere 3,000 trucks in comparison with its installed capacity of 25,000 units a year in the Czech Republic.
