India surpassed every other country for commercial vehicles (CV) sales growth in 2011.
Sales of commercial vehicles, mostly trucks, buses and lighter cargo vehicles, increased by 22% year on year in 2011, reported the Economic Times.
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In comparison, China posted a decline of 10% while the US reported a 13% gain.
China continued to lead by volume with sales of almost 4m units in 2011 while India was seventh with 80,000 units.
“We are expecting a stronger growth of commercial vehicles in the coming months even if there is a slight blip due to the rise in excise tax in the recent budget. With the Indian economy still growing reasonably well in percentage terms all signals lead to positive demand in coming months with a higher focus on the intra-city light cargo and passenger vehicles,” said S Sandilya, president of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, and chairman of the country’s third largest CV maker, Eicher Motor.
Some Chinese CV makers, such as Sinotruk, Shandong Shifeng and Beiqi Foton Motor, are set to launch their products in India.
Analysts attribute the increase of CVs in India to the government increasing investment in infrastructure and an increase in housing constructionwhich has boosted the demand for bigger vehicles. The 25-31 tonnes segment saw the highest growth in 2011.
“The fundamentals of the markets continue to be strong with the boost coming from demand accruing from the focus on infrastructure development while the mushrooming of smaller cities and towns is pushing demand for sub-one tonnetrucks,” said an executive of Ashok Leyland.
