Bangalore: Volvo Trucks on Monday announced the launch of new range of trucks in India, including the flagship Volvo FH which was voted 'International Truck of the Year 2014' in Europe.
Comprising Volvo FH, the Volvo FM and the Volvo FMX, the range is the most technologically advanced in India, boasting improvement in all crucial areas from productivity, fuel efficiency, safety and maximising uptime, company officials said.
They said the range also introduces unique features such as the intelligent I-Shift automated gearbox technology optimised for tough and rugged mining operating conditions, as well as Volvo's unique Dynafleet telemetrics system which allows following up on fuel consumption over time.
Dynafleet also enables customers to see in real time the location of their vehicle and vehicles' performance data that are critical to have control on their fleet, letting the customer fully focus on running their core business, they added.
"Volvo has invested more than USD 3 billion and 14 million engineering hours in this project. And just to make perfectly sure of the outcome, we have tested the vehicles for 21 million kms," Philippe Divry President, Volvo India and Senior Vice President, Volvo Group told reporters.
"We are the undisputed leaders of the premium truck segment in India, and this new range will keep moving the bar further in terms of productivity and efficiency for our customers," he added.
Divry said the Volvo group has always been extremely confident about the future outlook of India.
" ....We have always said that we are not scared by the short term cycle. We remain confident about the India's growth storey. Now we believe that this is the moment for growth story about to be delivered. We are very positive on the market and we think that there is no best moment than now to introduce new trucks."
Speaking on the industry and economic scenario, Vinod Aggarwal, CEO, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd said the industry has gone through recessionary phase during last few years and it was one of the worst times and the longest spell of recession. "However, it has started reviving now."
He said "....This year we have already seen the trends of revival, after hitting the bottom; in the last six months it has started growing."
"The industry is on the growth path, similarly if you look at the economy now we have got a strong central government in place and they have already taken steps to boost infrastructure as well as the core industries like mining; ....The government has taken major initiatives and I'm sure we will see the impact of those initiatives on the ground in the next six months," Aggarwal added.
Stating that the both economy and industry were going to see lot of action, he said "this is the revival phase for the industry and I think the timing for introduction of these trucks wouldn't have been better than this...."
Responding to a question, Divry said, "the trucks have local components....We are not just doing screwdriver assembly....We have significant amount of localisation."
To a question on size of the premium truck market in India's and Volvo's share in it, Rama Rao A S Senior Vice president Sales, Marketing and Aftermarket Volvo Trucks, said "In a good year we have seen the total industry volume is around 1,500 units. Traditionally Volvo trucks have been taking about 62 percent of the market share. This year as of September, we had 68. The same period last year, we had 63 percent. We have gained about five per cent market share this year so far."
To a question on deregulation of diesel by government, Aggarwal said "it's a positive step; ....Market based pricing is always good for market based economy. It is a very positive step in the right direction. It will help in long run."
