The rising demand for commercial vehicles has given Tata Cummins the drive to keep ahead. The company is in full gear to develop new diesel engine technologies that conform to Bharat Stage-IV standards well in advance.
Arun Ramachandran, vice-president (automotive business unit), says, ?The company is working on BS-IV-compliant engines that will be in vogue from April 1, 2010 when the new emission norms come into force.? Cummins currently offers BS-II and BS-III-compliant engines to leading players like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland.
?There has been a huge demand for medium and heavy commercial vehicles in the manufacturing sector. In order to cater to this demand and consequently increase our market share in the diesel engine segment, the company will increase the capacity of its existing plant in Jamshedpur by 50% from 1,20,000 units at present to 1,80,000 units by the fourth quarter of 2009,? Ramachandran says, adding that this would be over the 50,000 units the company added in July 2007 to its earlier capacity of 68,000 units.
Cummins has a marketshare of 30% in diesel engines.
Amidst a slump in the auto industry, commercial vehicles are, however, going strong. Sales went up by 8% in April-July, to close to 1.5 lakh units. Sales of light commercial vehicles grew by 11.13% at 66,721 units, while sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles went up by 5.4% to 77,578 units.
Tata Cummins is a 50:50 JV between Tata Motors, India?s largest automobile manufacturer, and Cummins Engine Company of the US, the world leader in design & manufacture of diesel engines. The company has a manufacturing facility in Jamshedpur, adjacent to Tata?s plant. The Cummins group now has a turnover of $1.3 billion in India.