Volvo Eicher Commercial Vehicles, which manufactures Eicher branded trucks and buses in India, said it would increase its capacity by 44% by setting up a new, 40,000-trucks-per-year plant in Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.
At present, the joint venture between Eicher Motors and AB Volvo has a capacity of manufacturing 90,000 trucks per year at its plant in Pithampur, also in Madhya Pradesh.
The company, which sold about 35,000 trucks and buses in the first six months of the current financial year, also exports a variety of engines and parts to Volvo’s European operations.
Eicher Motors said the new plant would cost about Rs 400 cr and is expected to come on stream in 18 months.
“Not only (has) VECV benefited from this partnership (with Volvo), at the same time, we have been able to contribute to the cost‐reduction opportunities for the Volvo Group through supply of cost‐effective engines from India,” said Siddhartha Lal, MD & CEO, Eicher Motors.
VECV is today an exclusive manufacturing hub for the medium‐duty Euro VI engines for the Volvo Group. The engines, manufactured at Pithampur, are being exported to Europe and Asia to take care of the needs of the Volvo Group.
The company, founded as a 50:50 joint venture in 2008, also came up with Eicher Pro series of trucks & buses using Volvo technology.
Besides manufacturing Eicher vehicles, VECV is also in charge of the sales and distribution of Volvo Trucks within India.