Truck load capacity rises despite fall in volumes

CHENNAI: Indian heavy duty truck sales may still be short of the 2018 peak sales

volumes

but in actual payload terms the industry is carrying higher capacity.
“In 2018-19, heavy duty truck sales were at 295,000 units whereas last year it was at 258,000 units, down 12%,” said

Vinod Aggarwal

MD&CEO,

VE Commercial Vehicles

.
However, due to migration to higher payload, the overall capacity for the industry has grown. “In 2018-19, the overall

payload capacity

was 9.7 million tonne but last year it was 10 million tonne as migration has happened to higher payload trucks,” he added.
Truck sales are more or less flat negative in the first nine months of the current financial year. “The 3.5 tonne plus category is down by 2.1%, the sub-5 tonne category is down by around 1.5% and overall market is down by around 2%,” said Aggarwal.

“Heavy duty trucks are down 7.4% while light and medium commercial vehicles are down 5.5%,” he added. What has helped though is that buses are up 18% in the same period and exports are up 6%.
VECV’s just launched electric-first range of small commercial vehicles (SCVs), the Eicher Pro X Range, is focusing on the last mile segment for e-commerce, FMCG, cold chain in the 2-3 tonne to 5 tonne segment.
“This is an EV first modular platform with other fuel options and there is export potential for both EV and diesel,” he added.