Truck sales skid off the road

NEW DELHI, OCT 27: A major erosion in demand for Ashok Leyland and TELCO’s medium and heavy commercial vehicles saw sales for the entire commercial vehicle (CV) industry hit a breaker and drop 6.1 per cent in the first half of the 2000-01 fiscal, despite a growth in sales of light trucks.

Hindustan Motors was the only player to have registered a growth in sales as it retailed 76 units during the first half of the year as against 48 units in the same period last year. Barring Bajaj Tempo, all the players in the light truck segment revved up and gained speed to move up on the growth track.

TELCO’s light commercial vehicle (LCV) sales grew 13 per cent to 18,321 units from 16,187 units a year ago. Eicher Ltd sold 3,601 units, up 25 per cent from 2,874 units, while Mahindra & Mahindra’s truck sales amounted to 3,387 units, up 4.8 per cent from 3,230 units last year, the SIAM data said.

Swaraj Mazda sold 2,238 units, up 38.4 per cent from 1,617 units last year, while Ashok Leyland sold 227 units as against 109 units a year earlier. Bajaj Tempo’s LCV sales stood at 1,600 units, down 26.4 per cent at 2,176 units last year.