Rabin Ghosh

Mumbai: Force Motors, through its 70% subsidiary MAN Force Trucks, is targeting to sell 6,800 heavy commercial vehicles this financial year, against just 800 it sold over the last 18 months, a senior company official said on Friday.

It hopes to reach its rated production capacity of 24,000 units per annum in three-four years, with half the production earmarked for exports.

“If we haven’t been able to mass produce, it is because we were investing in high localisation. Today, our localisation content is over 90%, which is very commendable considering it is only 18 months since we started manufacturing,” Abhay Firodia, chairman and managing director, Force Motors said.

Of the 6,000 trucks targeted for sale this fiscal, 1,800 are expected to be sold overseas markets like South Africa and Russia. It has exported about 100 trucks till date.

In 2006, the Pune-based utility vehicle, light commercial vehicle, and tractor manufacturer, tied up with Germany’s MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG to manufacture heavy commercial vehicles through a 70:30 joint venture.

The 15.5 billion-euro MAN group has plans for India. The group has other divisions like diesel engines, turbo machines, and industrial service in the country.

Even though Man Force has managed ‘near total’ localisation, the German auto giant has no component sourcing plans from India yet.

Source : DNA