Volvo India Private Ltd, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Swedish commercial vehicle major Volvo, has entered into used truck segment to service the customers those are looking for heavy-duty higher-tonnage vehicles at lower price, a top official of the company said.
?The company would buy only used Volvo trucks from the customers in the market, refurbish and sell it back in the market with six month company warranty,? said Eric Leblanc, managing director of Volvo India.
He said the price of brand new Volvo trucks utilised for on-and-off road purposes is in the range of Rs 45-65 lakh. The refurbished old trucks with the company warranty would be in the range of Rs 20-25 lakh, Leblanc added.
Since the launch of its operations in 1998, he said the company sold around 5,000 heavy duty trucks in India, primarily to support high-end operations in constructions and mining industry.
The company would buy back the used Volvo trucks that served for around 5 years in the field, he added. “We have started buying old Volvo trucks since last six months and response is good,” he added.
When asked whether the company floated any separate subsidiary to handle used vehicle division, Leblanc said, “No we are doing used vehicle business within our sales operations in Volvo India.”
The company believes that its service in used vehicle segment would help them compete with other heavy commercial vehicle majors in the segment Tata and Ashok Leyland, which have products at lower price levels.
Volvo India’s construction equipment division has also started ‘Volvo Used Equipment Network’, to buy Volvo equipment used for around 3-5 years in the market, refurbish and sell it back to the customers.
“The customers can save at least 30% through buying refurbished used equipments from the company,? said Mrityunjaya Singh, head of Volvo Construction Equipment (VCE). The prices of new Volvo equipment are in the range of Rs 17 lakh to Rs 3 crore per unit.
In fact VCE has 12% market share in heavy duty commercial vehicle segment that has a sales volume of 20,000 units per annum.
So far the company has sold around 8,000 equipment including heavy-duty hydraulic excavators and wheel loaders. Of this, he said around 5,000 Volvo equipment are 3-5 years old.
With the construction industry growing at 25-30%, he said the company also has been witnessing a same kind of growth and hope to continue the same in coming years.