Will it be ‘fast
& Furio’ for your truck and bus division with the launch of the new
Mahindra Furio truck range?
We surely hope so. We are quite confident it will be so.
Your Blazo trucks are
also doing quite well in the market. Can we have your views on that?
Blazo has done very well. We launched Blazo around two years
ago. We knew we were a challenger brand and we cannot afford to launch a me-too
product, so the whole objective of Blazo was that we were going to launch a
product with which we are going to give guarantees to the customer. Everyone
claims their truck is best in terms of fuel efficiency, in terms of service
parts, but with the Blazo we gave a
guarantee that you get the best mileage
for your truck compared to any other truck in the industry or your fleet.
Otherwise you return our truck. I am very happy to report that after more than
15,000 Blazo trucks on the road, not a single truck has come back. Blazo today
has clearly established itself as the most fuel efficient and fluid efficient
truck in the Indian trucking industry in its class. Backed by its fuel
efficiency guarantee, we also gave service and parts guarantee and as a result
of which Blazo is continuously growing on volume and market share. We have
doubled our market share compared to what it was two years back. From 2.7pc we
have already moved to 5.4pc and gong forward we are hoping to do much better
than what we have done so far.
Before the Furio was
launched, you were missing in the 6.5 tonnes to 16 tonnes segment in the
trucking industry. With the Furio, do you think, things will move FURIOusly
ahead for your company?
Yes, that's the plan. As you know for the entire commercial
vehicle segment, Mahindra is the number two brand and we are a clear No. 1 when
it comes to small commercial vehicles and we are No. 3 when it comes to light
commercial vehicles, we have come to No.4 in heavy commercial vehicles and
aspire to be No.3 very soon. But this range you have rightly said, the 6.2 tonnes
to 16.2 tonnes, we were missing. We did not have this range in Mahindra &
Mahindra. And that's what we were working for in the last four years, to come
up with a platform which we have named Furio rightly so, which is a modular
platform which will have the whole gamut of the range coming in this GVW
portfolio with five engine options which will come in different segments and
different class of vehicles, three transmission types and three cabin types.
With that we address the full range and we hope to have a far higher level of
volume and market share than we currently have in the overall commercial
vehicle space.
Do you think this is
a very critical segment in the commercial vehicle industry?
It is a very important segment because with India moving
more towards a clear hub and spoke model, there are three large segments that
are going to emerge. One is of course small commercial vehicle, second is the
heavy commercial vehicles on a GVW of 37 to 49 tonne class, and in between the LCV and ICV range. Already
the industry is at a 1.5 lakh units volume per year which Mahindra has been
missing, and that is why the segment is critical to us, not just that it
completes the whole range, but also gives us additional volumes and additional profits
which we can make out of putting Furio on the platform in this segment where we
are able to sell more and get to a No. 3 position.
The Furio range would
comprise of 21 models with five engine options. Can you elaborate on that?
Overall, this platform from 6.2 tonnes to 16.2 tonnes has 21
products. Each of those products will have multiple wheel bases and multiple
load body types. Of the 21 products, we are going to launch seven in BS 4
version. We have unveiled four today--11, 12, 13 and 14 tonne range.
Progressively we are going to launch 15 tonne and 16 tonne, as well as a 7.5
tonne truck in BS 4 standards. Because the window for BS 4 that is left is very
small, we are directly going to launch 14 models in BS 6 standards. By the time
BS 6 comes in the country in 2020 April to June quarter, we will have the full 21 different products
of this platform playing fully in the
market.
Your company is now a
No.2 player overall in the CV business in the country. Will your company emerge
as a very significant player here with the Furio coming in?
Overall commercial vehicle we are No. 2 player
but our aspiration in the short term and medium term is that we want to be No.3
player in rest of the specific segments we are playing. We are already No. 3
when it comes to LCVs, we are inching towards becoming No.3 in HCVs. With the
Furio, our immediate plan is that in a couple of years when the full range plays
out, is to get to No.3 over there. With
that we come to a far stronger No. 2 than what we are today