VECV to raise capacity at Indore plant to 7,000 units

 Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles (VECV) — the 50:50 JV between Sweden’s Volvo Group and India’s Eicher Motors — has announced plans to increase capacity at its plant in Indore, in a bid to tap growing demand in the market.

Presently, the facility is operating at 100% capacity of 5,500 units per month. “With regard to the growing demand, we are taking steps to increase the plant’s capacity to 7,000 units by adding a new assembly line, which will be realised by this year-end,” VE Commercial Vehicles CEO Vinod Aggarwal told Deccan Herald.

Accordingly, VECV will be investing Rs 400 crore during 2016-17, towards capacity expansion, new products, and other novel initiatives.

“In terms of expanding our product spread, we are bullish on all segments — light and medium trucks, heavy duty trucks, and buses. We have already introduced three new models in the last three months,” Aggarwal said.

Referring to the industry showing signs of improvement, he said, “The industry is growing very well beyond recession, after three years of down-cycle. Also, the push given by the government in the area of infrastructure, and positive sentiments owing to an expected good monsoon, economic growth, spurt in ecommerce, and the 7th Pay Commission, among others, have improved consumption. Demand has also been led by replacement of vehicles in the marketplace.”

It must be noted that VECV has grown in tandem with the industry between April 2015 and 2016 (in the 5-tonne and above categories of trucks). “We saw sales of 52,025 units this year, over last year’s 41,822 units. While the industry grew at 25%, we have grown by 24.5%,” Aggarwal said.

The company has also come out with a slew of technological innovations in its vehicles.

“We are continuing to introduce new technologies in our products. We recently placed telematics onto our Pro 6000 and Pro 8000 trucks. Apart from GPS and tracking services, the telematics provides advanced fuel management, time management and fleet management aids. Fleet operators can track all details of their vehicles — driver-by-driver, route-by-route, in real time,” Aggarwal said, adding that the company’s R&D centre at Pithampur is now working on Euro VI engines, which will come to market from April 1, 2020.