The heavy vehicle segment currently dominated by Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland will see a new entrant. Force Motors (earlier known as Bajaj Tempo Ltd) and Germany-based MAN Commercial Vehicles Group today decided to enter into a joint venture for manufacturing heavy trucks.The JV will produce trucks for the entire Asian region. The JV is expected to manufacture 24,000 vehicles annually. No export of vehicles to Europe is envisaged, the company said.At present MAN Nutzfahrzeuge group has license agreements with the company for producing trucks in the range of 16 to 25 tonnes, it said.Anton Weinmann, chairman of the board of Man Nutzfahrzeuge group, and Abhay Firodia, chairman and MD of Force Motors, signed a letter of intent for the JV, the Pune-based company informed the BSE on Wednesday.‘‘We have taken effective steps to establish a strong base to support this concept as we are convinced that the rapidly developing Indian transport scenario can benefit greatly from the induction of vehicles based on the most fuel efficient, safe, reliable and environment-friendly MAN technologies,’’ Firodia said.The contracts would be worked out in detail and signed during the first quarter of 2006. The start of production for the Indian market is planned for the same year.The planned venture is an important step of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge for opening markets outside of Europe, it said. Worldwide, MAN has 60,000 employees generating sales of around 15 billion euros (75 per cent abroad). Force Motors, controlled by the Firodias, makes multi-utility and light commercial vehicles for the Indian market.
