Commercial vehicle exports surge in first half of 2015-16

Similar to the passenger vehicle segment, the commercial vehicle-makers are increasingly banking on exports to give a flip to sales as the domestic market is yet to recover fully. Commercial vehicle-makers are looking at countries beyond SAARC and targeting Africa, South America and South East Asia. During the first six months of this financial year, the total commercial vehicles export has surged 20% to 49,314 units.  

The medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) segment, which has been growing in the domestic market over the last 14 months, has seen exports of 16,656 units, up 12%. Interestingly, the LCV segment in the domestic market, which has been declining consistently over a year now, gained 24% with total shipments of 32,658 units. 

During the April-September 2015 period, Tata Motors maintained its leadership with a 53% share of total exports. The company shipped 26,026 units, registering a growth of 17%. The automaker's total exports included 9,499 units of M&HCVs and 16,527 of LCV. 

Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has secured second place in exports of CVs with an impressive 38% growth as the company shipped a total of 13,772 units. Maintaining the strong demand for pick-up trucks, the company registered an increase of 47% with total exports of 11,563 units. The pick-up truck segment contributes nearly 84% of the total exports of the automaker. This clearly underlines the popularity of pick-up trucks in not only the domestic market but also in exports.

Meanwhile, Ashok Leyland shipped a total of 6,278 units, an increase of 13%, with M&HCVs holding the major chunk of exports for the company including 2,652 buses and 2,611 trucks. 

However, VE Commercial Vehicle (VECV) has seen its export decline by 6.5% to 3,005 units.

Total domestic CV sales in India during April-September 2015 rose by 7.18% to 314,595 units as compared to 293,516 units in the same period in 2014-15. 

Also read: M&HCV goods carriers post strong sales in H1-FY16