VECV is owned by the combine of
Eicher Motors and Volvo. It is India’s fourth-largest truck and bus manufacturer with products in the light, medium and heavy-duty segment.
Eicher dealers across the country are stocking up BS 6 (BSVI) trucks and buses that will become the norm after April 1 as the existing technology of BS 4 inventory simultaneously becomes obsolete.
As per industry estimates, there were more than 15,000 unsold commercial vehicles in the channel (with company and dealers) that could be worth more than Rs 2,000 crore. But due to lack of retail demand and excess capacity cargo within the system, the uptick in demand has been low.
Speaking to Moneycontrol Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles said, “Our inventory would be very low, it’s only 5-7 days only, its bare minimum. There must be 400-500 units of BSIV at our plant.”
VECV clocked a fall of nearly 24 percent during April-February to 41,637 units as compared to 54,404 units sold in the same period last year.
While sales data of the same period is yet to be shared by the industry body SIAM, the data for the April-January period reveals a fall of 20 percent in domestic commercial vehicles sales volumes.
The fall in medium and heavy-duty CVs (MHCV) was even steeper at 36 percent to 198,736 units during the same ten months. Market leader
Tata Motors has been desperately trying to reduce its BS 4 inventory resulting in significantly high drops in volumes.
Tata Motors’ MHCV sales during April-February slumped 46 percent while its total CV sales were down 27 percent. Chennai-based
Ashok Leyland has seen its MHCV volumes plummet by 40 percent during the same 11 months.
Aggarwal hopes that an uptick in the economic activity coupled with implementation of the scrappage incentive scheme promised by the central government could help lift demand.
“The industry was 1.6 lakh units in 2013-14 and this year it will be 1.5 lakh units. So we have already gone back to the levels seen 6 years ago. A lot depends on the scrappage policy that the government has promised to bring out and the overall uptick in the economy which could lead to demand coming back on track,” Aggarwal added.
Aggarwal also mentioned that currently there was no concern of coronavirus on VECV’s operations.
