Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) has been expanded to increase the scope of its Bus project. Under the expanded scheme, within 90 days, approx. 15000 buses will be bought with a subsidy of Rs 4000 crore from the central government.
The following cities will benefit from this scheme -
Delhi - 1500
Mumbai - 1050
Kolkata - 1200
Bangalore - 700
Chennai - 800
These buses will replace existing buses of State Transport Corporations (STCs). At the last count there were about 32,000 over aged buses being used by STCs. The plan is to replace these and others total amounting to approx. 40,000 buses to be replaced in the current year.
Many tenders will start opening soon. Hence the year seems to be an exciting one for bus body builders as well as OEMs. In particluar Ashok Leyland may take a sigh of relief. They traditionally have been good in government business and this JNNURM scheme may give them a much needed boost after a terrible last year.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Ashok Leyland develops 6 cylinder Hythane Engine
AL (Ashok Leyland) announced recently that it has developed a 6 cylinder Hythane (20% Hydrogen + Natural Gas) engine in collaboration with Eden Energy of Australia. The Engine 6-litre, 92 kW BS-4 engine will be used for CNG Buses in India.
Ashok Leyland is a pioneer in the CNG Bus category in India. It's success story started with introduction of a CNG bus in Mumbai in 1997. Since then over 5500 AL CNG buses ply in various Indian metros.
We wish them all the luck with these engines.
Ashok Leyland is a pioneer in the CNG Bus category in India. It's success story started with introduction of a CNG bus in Mumbai in 1997. Since then over 5500 AL CNG buses ply in various Indian metros.
We wish them all the luck with these engines.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Tata Motors Sales Figures
Yesterday I had posted AL (Ashok Leyland) sales for the year 2008-09 and we saw that it was a y-o-y decline of about 35% hitting AL badly. TML (Tata Motors Ltd.) CV figures for domestic sales are shown below. They have registered a decline of 15% y-o-y which is much better than AL. More so because AL has traditionally done much better in recession than TML.
AL has done better during recessions because of its pro goverment sales strategy. AL has also piped TML when it came to selling to Municipalities, Defence etc. - all government agencies or bodies.
Since TML has done much better than AL this time around, it clearly means that there has been a shift in sales strategy from TML. There has been a clear focus on sales to government through aggressive bidding on tenders.
It will also be interesting to see how much has TML been able to penetrate the south India market, which traditionally has been a strong foothold of AL. Vice versa it will also be interesting to note AL sales in north and east India which traditionally have been TML markets.
But whatever may be the numbers, it is clear that AL's sales strategy has not worked this time around or TML was better prepared with a strategy to uproot AL from its traditional strongholds. Going forward it become increasingly important for AL to review and revise its sales strategy because though they may not agree, but they have got it wrong somewhere.
| | March 2009 | Feb 2009 | March 2008 | 2008-09 | 2007-08 |
| Domestic M&HCV | 12333 | 8809 | 20555 | 113674 | 166430 |
| Domestic LCV | 16673 | 14583 | 14438 | 151338 | 146930 |
| Total Domestic CV | 29006 | 23392 | 35993 | 265012 | 313360 |
AL has done better during recessions because of its pro goverment sales strategy. AL has also piped TML when it came to selling to Municipalities, Defence etc. - all government agencies or bodies.
Since TML has done much better than AL this time around, it clearly means that there has been a shift in sales strategy from TML. There has been a clear focus on sales to government through aggressive bidding on tenders.
It will also be interesting to see how much has TML been able to penetrate the south India market, which traditionally has been a strong foothold of AL. Vice versa it will also be interesting to note AL sales in north and east India which traditionally have been TML markets.
But whatever may be the numbers, it is clear that AL's sales strategy has not worked this time around or TML was better prepared with a strategy to uproot AL from its traditional strongholds. Going forward it become increasingly important for AL to review and revise its sales strategy because though they may not agree, but they have got it wrong somewhere.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Ashok Leyland posts poor results
Ashok Leyland has posted sales numbers for the past year. The year seems to have been particulary bad for them. Here are the numbers:
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DTNA gets on with Innovation!
Daimler Trucks North America have developed new Innovation Truck which not only highlights its existing technologies but also introduces new cutting edge advancements reports Freightliner Trucks.
The Innovation Truck has made a made a big leap in the aerodynamics of the body. With advance features like rear wheel fairings, roof deflector, front air splitter and use of cameras instead of side mirrors, the airflow is reduced to lower the drag and improve fuel efficiency.
Apart from improvements in aerodynamics of the Truck, use of RunSmart Predictive Cruise also provides significant fuel savings. This system looks up to 1 mile in advance from the truck location and anticipates road gradient using GPS and 3d digital map technology to alter the speed according to the terrain ahead thus achieving maximum fuel efficiency.
Daimler Truck in India has established a JV with the Hero Group. In the initial phases, the JV will produce lCV, MCV, HCV for the Indian mass market. Going forward the JV will produce Trucks for export markets.
Daimler Trucks is a division of Daimler AG and the world's largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Its owns world's five leading truck brands - Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star and Mitsubishi Fuso.
The Innovation Truck has made a made a big leap in the aerodynamics of the body. With advance features like rear wheel fairings, roof deflector, front air splitter and use of cameras instead of side mirrors, the airflow is reduced to lower the drag and improve fuel efficiency.
Apart from improvements in aerodynamics of the Truck, use of RunSmart Predictive Cruise also provides significant fuel savings. This system looks up to 1 mile in advance from the truck location and anticipates road gradient using GPS and 3d digital map technology to alter the speed according to the terrain ahead thus achieving maximum fuel efficiency.
Daimler Truck in India has established a JV with the Hero Group. In the initial phases, the JV will produce lCV, MCV, HCV for the Indian mass market. Going forward the JV will produce Trucks for export markets.
Daimler Trucks is a division of Daimler AG and the world's largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Its owns world's five leading truck brands - Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Sterling, Western Star and Mitsubishi Fuso.