Commercial vehicle industry may perform significantly better this year: Mahindra Group official

He also said intermediate commercial vehicle (ICV) and light commercial vehicle (LCV) segments are likely to do better, as the Q3 performance for certain segments is seeing a “tapering” effect.

“I think this fiscal will end significantly better than FY21. Last year, the whole industry was two lakh units. We believe this year, the industry is already sitting at 1.80 lakh.

“We will see a good double-digit growth this year by the end of the year,” said Veejay Nakra, chief executive officer (automotive sector) of Mahindra & Mahindra, in response to a question on the outlook for the commercial vehicle (CV) industry.

From the base effect point of view, if one looks at year-to-date (YTD) data, it is encouraging for the industry, the 3.5 tonnes to 55 tonnes, which has grown over 60 per cent, he said.

Nakra added that even within that, segment-wise, they have seen strong double-digit growth.

“But, if one was to look at Q3FY 22 data versus Q3 FY21 data, some of the segments have already started tapering off. It could be because when the industry opened in Q3FY21, there was pent-up demand and, hence, there was a surge in sales,” Nakra said.

The third quarter of the current fiscal is already starting to see pressure on what is going to play out in the March 2022 quarter, Nakra said.

He added that there is a number of reasons for that. GDP forecast has been revised a couple of times, the Omicron is starting to see some of its effects, freight rates have not moved up in commensurate with the hike in diesel rates, and overall utilisation of trucks is not more than 45-50 per cent.

“So, we have seen pressure playing out on some of the segments,” he added.

Earlier, MTB announced the ‘Get More Mileage or Give Truck Back’ guarantee for its entire range of BS-VI trucks. MTB offers a complete range of trucks from 3.5 tonnes to 55 tonnes, comprising HCV Blazo X, ICV Furio, and LCVs Furio 7 and Jayo range.

The Mileage Guarantee, ‘Get More Mileage or Give the Truck Back’, was first offered on Blazo trucks in 2016. The Mileage Guarantee will be applicable on the entire range HCV, ICV and LCV of Mahindra BS-VI trucks, it said.

The ‘Get More Mileage or Give Back Truck’ Guarantee across the range of trucks is a landmark move for the light, intermediate and heavy commercial vehicle industry. Given the spiralling fuel prices, there wasn’t a better time to introduce this customer value proposition,” said Nakra.

He added that it will reaffirm the company’s customers’ faith in Mahindra’s ability to create technologically advanced, class-leading products and set higher standards for the Indian CV industry while reflecting its commitment to the segment.

“‘Get More Mileage or Give the Truck Back’ was first offered on our HCV truck Blazo in 2016 and not a single truck has come back. All our new introductions ever since – Blazo X, Furio ICV range and Furio 7 have delivered higher fuel efficiency,” said Jalaj Gupta, business head (commercial vehicles business unit) at Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

He further said that additionally, MTB is offering a service guarantee to ensure higher uptime for its customers through the guaranteed speedier turnaround of the truck, be it on the highway or at the dealership workshop.

“We are seeing increasing penetration of CNG fuel in LCVs as well as the ILCV and the ICV segments. It has raised to almost one third level YTD this year because of the operating.

“There is an increasing shift towards CNG (compressed natural gas) from diesel…We have our plans on the CNG on our entire ILCV range of trucks,” he stated.