VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd. Is a 50-50 joint venture between the Volvo Group (Volvo) and Eicher Motors Limited (EML).It is a partnership that brings together Global leadership in technology, quality, safety & environmental care along with the deep knowledge & understanding of the Indian CV market.
As a company VECV comprises of the following business verticals:
1. Eicher Trucks and buses:
The first Eicher truck was rolled out from its state of the art manufacturing plant in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh in 1986 and over the past 25 years, the products have got endorsement from happy customers of over 300,000 vehicles. The company today has transformed into a complete CV manufacturer with a wide product range from 5t to 40t GVW trucks and 21 to 69 seater buses. The success and growth of Eicher Trucks and Buses has been primarily driven by superior product quality, superior performance with respect to fuel efficiency and customer driven strategies. Eicher trucks were one of the first in India to offer the tilt cabin, apart from ready to use built-up vehicle in accordance with customers’ needs. Another example is the Eicher school bus which has been designed in conjunction with the IRTE (Institute of Road Traffic Association), school and parent bodies and the IIT. The result has been a bus that is equipped with safety mechanisms to ensure an incident-free journey. The company's effort to provide value to its customers has also borne fruit with increased customer acceptance reflected in growing vehicle sales. Eicher products are well known in the market for its overall low cost of ownership and the reason can be found in the 'Eicher advantages'. At the core of 'Eicher advantages' is the Eicher vehicle's high fuel efficiency. In addition to being customer centric, the geographical expanse of its service network has ensured dominant position of Eicher Trucks and Buses.
Last 3 years have been a Landmark year for Eicher Trucks & Buses. In 2008- Eicher Trucks and Buses became part of VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd. (VECV), a 50:50 JV between Eicher Motors & Volvo Group. It is a partnership that brings together Global leadership in technology, quality, safety & environmental care along with the deep knowledge & understanding of the Indian CV market and low cost structure. The company is well on the way to achieve its vision to be recognized as an industry leader driving modernization in commercial transportation, in India and other developing markets.
ETB has a strong presence in the L/MD segment with around 38% share in 7-12T category and a 30% share in 5-12T trucks segment. Eicher’s 21-69 seater buses have a growing presence in the LD school bus, staff and route-permit segments. Eicher trucks and Buses have also made strong inroads into Heavy Duty trucks segment of 16-40 T with their “VE” series of fuel efficient heavy duty trucks. Launched during Auto Expo in 2010, the VE series Eicher HD trucks have received very good response from the market with its promise of delivering enhanced Value to the customers. Besides the domestic market, ETB is currently exporting to South Asian markets of Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka and they also plan to leverage the distribution network of Volvo to tap the international requirements in South East Asia, Middle East and Africa.
2. Volvo Trucks India: Sales and after sales support of Volvo trucks in India:
Volvo Trucks in India is synonymous with the mining and the construction industries. They have been tried and tested for operations in extreme conditions, reliable and robust performance and maximum productivity. Over the years Volvo Trucks has built up an elite customer base having over 100 vehicles in their fleet operating at various mining sites across India. The customers vouch by the high reliability and productivity and have expanded business operations at a fast pace with quick return on investments. Being the customer’s best business partner, Volvo Trucks extend support to customers’ right through the life-cycle of the products with a wide network of service and parts centers and on site assistance.
Volvo Trucks in 2010 launched the FH520 Powertronic Truck, “the most powerful and technologically advanced truck on the Indian road”, in the over dimensional cargo (ODC) segment. The proven FH520 platform is powered by 520hp, 6-cylinder, and inline direct injection diesel engine, which keeps it way ahead of competition in terms of the lugging capacity .Volvo Trucks are designed for a wide range of applications like Tipper, Tractors, Pullers, Tunnel Tippers, Rescue Trucks, Firefighting Trucks, Fuel Bowser, Special Application Trucks, Concrete Boom Pumps etc.,
3. Eicher Engineering components
Eicher Engineering Components (EEC) is the automotive component division of VECV. EEC came into existence in 1992 with taking over of Ramon & Demm plant (based at Thane near Mumbai) and over the years has grown from strength to strength to become an established player in its segment. The company has achieved excellence in manufacturing Power-train components (Differential Gears, Transmission Gears & Shafts) and Gear Boxes for a worldwide clientele both in the OEM segment and in the spare parts segment. EEC also caters to the 100% requirement of Eicher Trucks and Buses. EEC has three manufacturing plants, one at Thane in Maharashtra and two others at Dewas and SEZ, Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh. The plant in the SEZ zone of Pithampur caters to requirements of the US market in the gearbox assemblies for various segments.
On account of the new upgradation initiatives, the manufacturing facilities have the latest machinery for crown and pinion cutting, hobbing, shaving & gear grinding for transmission gears and shafts, inner & outer diameter grinding, lapping and testing and shaving cutter re-sharpening. EEC works in close collaboration with many of the OEM customers for development of new products. Dedicated software is in place for product development and close monitoring procedure is in place at each of its facilities. Efforts of EEC in automotive engineering excellence have been acknowledged by many in the industry through awards and accolades. EEC has been certified under the Supplier Quality Excellence program by Catepillar for quality & service and has also been awarded by Mahindra and Mahindra & John Deere for the efforts in development of gears & gearboxes in the fastest time with first time right quality. Voltas & Fairfield has also awarded EEC for quality & delivery.
EEC constantly undertakes technology upgradation and new installations to continue on its growth journey and climb higher on the value chain. The Dewas facility has been upgraded with the latest state of the art machines like Gear grinding and Shaving cutter re sharpening, and CGCF, which is used for heat treating crown wheel & pinions. This is one of the first of its kind installed by any auto component manufacturer in the country. The future expansion plans of EEC are in line with its mission to keep up with the world class quality standards in technology, plant facility and skilled workforce.
4. Eicher Engineering solutions
Eicher Engineering Solutions (EES), a unit of VE Commercial Vehicles, is engaged in providing design and engineering services to its customers worldwide. Backed by four decades of design and development experience in automotive domain, EES has helped its clients achieve lower cost, enhanced productivity, improved reliability and innovative products.
EES was created in 1997 as “Center of Excellence” for providing engineering & design support for captive requirements. This Center consisted of a team of well qualified engineers possessing expertise in Design and Analysis for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, farm equipment & Heavy Engineering industry. Growing rapidly over the years, EES team strength is presently over 150 spread over four locations across the globe (1 in India @ Gurgaon, 1 in US @ Detroit and 2 in China @ Beijing & Shanghai).
Over the years EES has evolved a robust quality management system, which is a phase gate process, fine-tuned for engineering services work. EES has helped clients reduce their costs substantially through a mix of domain intensive and skill based service offerings and an onsite – offshore delivery model. The delivery model ensures high level of efficiency for engineering work while maintaining low cost execution.
Eicher Engineering Solutions (EES) complements the client’s engineering and development efforts by providing end to end engineering services enabled through Effective multi shoring delivery model harnessing costs, skills and speed from across the globe, through Available domain expertise at ‘Centers of Excellence’ in respective geographies and having the Design-to-build capabilities for driveline products
The Engagement models of EES are primarily driven through Strategic alliances, Program level partnerships (typically annual contracts), Project based services (typically monthly contracts) and Job based services (typically weekly / hourly contracts)
5. VE POWERTRAIN PROJECT
As a testimony of the strong alignment and synergy that the VECV JV brings , in 2010 in a global first initiative, VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) announced an investment of 2,880MINR (million Indian rupees) in its Pithampur plant for the production and final assembly of the Volvo group’s new global medium duty engine platform. This investment by VECV in its Pithampur plant gives the Volvo group a complete facility in India for manufacturing and assembling the new medium duty engine which will be introduced in the Volvo group’s trucks and buses worldwide over the next few years. The plant has a planned capacity to produce 85,000 engines. Additionally, these engines will also be used for Eicher’s range of heavy duty commercial vehicles. This is possibly the largest such project in India and certainly the most technologically advanced – as we will be producing base engines capable of Euro 6 emission norms. This will catapult VECV into one of the largest commercial vehicle engine manufacturers in India and will give us capability well beyond any of our competitors.
Corporate Social Responsibility
The automotive industry is one of the key drivers of the Indian economy. The auto sector which contributes to five per cent of the country’s GDP is expected to be the seventh largest in the world by 2016. The Industry is already facing acute shortage of skilled man power. Apart from this, there is significant gap between the skilled manpower requirements and the available talent pool in the industry. The problem is bound to aggravate with the entry of more vehicles, new component manufacturers, sophisticated and high technology products.
VECV’s CSR program has been designed to meet this critical gap. This focused initiative to address the growing scarcity of technologically skilled manpower makes VECV a pioneering CV Manufacturer in India to have taken the lead in addressing this issue. The organization is establishing training centres across India on an Industry-Institute collaborative model. With the setting up of these centres the company would be implementing a critical action point of the automotive mission plan 2006-2016.
The company has established four centres at the following places:
1. Ahmedabad with ITI Kubernagar.
2. Mysore with National Institute Of Engineering.(NIE)
3. Mohali with Rayat Bahra Education Group.
The driving objective of this collaboration is to provide an understanding of the latest automobile technology and modern manufacturing techniques to the students who can be readily absorbed in the industry with minimum orientation and training. The training centres are equipped with modern training aids like dynamic cutaways, Wall charts, Practice units and Technical publications which are both comprehensive and pictorial covering most scientific way of repair maintenance and overhauling of Commercial Vehicles.
VECV has conceptualized special training programmes for ITI Students called “Eicher Technical Training Programme” (ETTP). This Programme provides an understanding of modern automobile technology, scientific way of repair and maintenance, overhaul of commercial vehicle and Customer Service management to the students. This aspect is critical in today’s market; particularly with the advent of new generation commercial vehicles and manufacturing techniques. Students will study ETTP in addition to the second year ITI syllabus.
VECV has also been in the forefront of honing driving skills through Eicher Driving training schools. The institute works sincerely towards fulfilling its motive of “Safety behind wheels”. The Programme trains a driver on safe driving and educates him on the proper operation and maintenance of the vehicles. Driver’s manual in Hindi and other regional languages have been specially designed to make understanding lucid and easier.
VECV is the only CV Manufacturer in India to have extensively conducted fuel conservation training Programme along with the Petroleum Conservation Research association. This Programme known as EFFECT-Eicher Fuel Efficiency Enhancement Training educates the learner on steps to conserve fuel and reduce atmospheric pollution. A user on an average has been able to save around 15% in fuel post the training Programme. For a commercial vehicle this works out to be Rs 1.2 lakhs of saving per vehicle per year. Around 10,000 drivers have been trained under this Programme during last four years and the endeavor is to conduct more of such training programmes across different cities of India in the near future.