Piaggio plans 3-wheelers

Piaggio has a controlling stake of 51 per cent in the joint venture company. The rest of the shares are owned by Greaves Ltd. It will launch a three-seater passenger model, pick-up van and half-tonne cargo vehicle based on Piaggio8217;s popular Ape8217; three wheeler platform.

The company would launch its six-seater and other models later after analysing the market demand. The total project cost of the new venture is pegged at Rs 60 crore of which the equity component is Rs 34 crore, managing director of the company Ravi Chopra said.

The plant would have a capacity ofproducing 30,000 vehicles per year. The actual production level would depend on the domestic and the overseas demand, he said. quot;The price of the products would be highly competitive,quot; Chopra said but refused to divulge the pricing structure. The company hopes to achieve break-even after one year of commercial operation in 1999-2000.

The new three wheeler engines, developed by Piaggio and conforming to stringent European Standards, were being perfected in India, Chopra said. However, Greaves8217; Garuda8217; range of three wheelers would continue to be available in Indian markets as they catered to the needs of a different segment, he said.

quot;In the past three years, we have sold more than 50,000 Garuda vehicles and we hope to sell about 10,000 vehicles during this current fiscal,quot; Chopra said. India would be Piaggio8217;s hub for production of light commercial vehicles as well as the engine, Dell8217; Artino said.

Piaggio also unveiled its latest engine for light transport vehicle LTV meeting Euro and Indian emissionnorms. The new engine is based on the fully automised stratified turbulence fast, which combines better performance with very low environmental impact in terms of emissions, noise and vibrations, he claimed.