The transition to BS-VI emission norms is going to impact light and small commercial vehicles the most in terms cost increase and this is where we have to come up with innovations that will make products good business proposals for the customers, says Girish Wagh, President, Commercial Vehicle, Tata Motors. In an interview with ETAuto, he informed that the company will launch a new mini truck called ‘Intra’ during this quarter. Edited Excerpts:
Q. You have had significant exposure to the passenger vehicles space. Are you using some of the learning in your new assignment as head of CV business?
We are embedding the learnings from the passenger vehicle segment to bring improvements in commercial vehicles. There will be a big role of industrial design to get implemented in commercial vehicles which will be something the customers will see subsequently.
In addition to that, the level of refinement that one has seen in passenger vehicles, part of it can certainly come into commercial vehicles and can add to the comfort and convenience of the drivers and the passengers. We are also planning to use this learning to reduce the total cost of operation.
M&HCV will continue to reel under the after-effects of the new axle-load norms.Girish Wagh, President, Commercial Vehicle, Tata Motors
Q. During the last fiscal, there was an uptake in commercial vehicles demand in H1 but the sales fell miserably in H2. How do you see the future?
We entered 2018 almost one year after the transition to BS-IV emission norms. In terms of sales, the first half of FY’19 went very well and we saw good growth over the same period in the previous fiscal. After that, the industry faced headwinds from four sides. Starting with issues with GST implementation, to the introduction of new axle load norms for medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M&HCV), to credit issues after IL&FS debacle and then high oil prices put some breaks in the growth rate from November 2018.
But if you step back and analyse, amongst the four sub-segments only M&HCV segment de-grew in H2.
Now, most of these headwinds have been taken care of. Therefore, one can see good growth coming back into the intermediate and light commercial vehicle segment (I&LCV) and the small commercial vehicle segment (SCV).
I think M&HCV will continue to reel under the after-effects of the new axle-load norms. Within the M&HCV segment, only cargo segment slowed down while the tipper segment has grown very well on the back of strong investment by the government in the infrastructure segment.
In the last fiscal, Tata Motors CV segment has performed well on an overall basis. After quite some time we have been able to grow our market share on an annual basis. Our market share has grown in the M&HCV, I&LCV and SCV sub-segments last fiscal.
Stepping into FY’20, I feel the first half would either move at a slow pace or will be somewhat equivalent to the H1 of FY’19. BS-VI pre-buy will propel the demand in the second half of this fiscal which will improve the condition of this segment.
Source:ET
