Volvo Plans to Develop Medium Duty Trucks for Global Markets

India: Volvo is set to develop medium duty trucks with the assistance of its Indian R&D team, as it plans to expand its reachness all over the world to rank among the largest commercial vehicle companies. The development of medium duty truck is likely to be in 10 to15 ton segment, which would be launched globally by 2017.

“In terms of contribution to the group, we are critical because we do a lot of other jobs apart from sales. The site in India has over 800 engineers and has been entrusted with the responsibility for developing a value truck. This is a global responsibility. So any value truck which is to be designed, improved, the responsibility will lie with the Indian side,” said Kamal Bali, Managing Director, Volvo India.

The company is estimated to initiate the medium duty truck production by 2017, wherein, Kamal Bali said “The whole product is owned by them – from concept to design to execution is being done by the Indian team. Of course, they take help from Lyon (France) and Gothenburg (Sweden) but they are leading the team. This truck could be not for India. Some of the products this site does may not be launched in India.”

TechSci Research believes that the new medium duty truck, to be developed by Volvo for the entire international market, would give the company an access to a huge customer base present across various countries of the world. Eventually, the step taken by the company would generate an emerging demand for tires, mainly, in the OEM segment of the global commercial vehicle industry, which would add up to the overall tire market of the world, in coming period.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research, “Global Commercial Vehicle Tire Market By Vehicle Type, By Demand Category, By Region, Competition Forecast & Opportunities, 2021”, the global market for commercial vehicle tires is projected to cross $ 117 billion by 2021. In 2015, Asia-Pacific dominated the global commercial vehicle tire market, followed by North America, Europe & CIS Countries, Middle East & Africa and South America. Asia-Pacific region is anticipated to maintain its dominance over the next five years as well owing to expanding commercial vehicle fleet in the major regional economies such as China, India and Japan.