ASHOK LEYLAND riding high on Ecomet ICV platform post-COVID

In an exclusive interaction, Anuj Kathuria, COO, Ashok Leyland shares with N. Balasubramanian the positive trend in their ICV segment, and talks about how the market sentiment post-COVID is showing a promising bounce back besides the trust factor that their discerning customers continue to place in them.

Excerpts: What, according to you, is the overall market sentiment right now?

There was robust demand for ICV which was leading the way and it continues. Tippers, on the other side also started picking up right from September onwards and demand has been growing month-onmonth. In fact, continues to grow where February was a growth over January this year. So ICV and the tippers were the saving grace for this year although the overall volumes are still lower than last year. But the demand has been quite stable as far as ICVs are concerned and tippers have also done well. In January this year, for the first time, we saw that demand for the multiaxle vehicles and the tractor trailers have also started looking better than what it was in Q3. The growth in the heavier vehicles segment, especially tippers, can be attributed to the infrastructure development.

Is it mainly the e-commerce boom, especially during the lockdown last year, that has been the growth driver for the ICV segment?

E-commerce has definitely improved the demand but there are other segments too which have been doing good. One of them which deserves a special mention is the POL segment. Going by how the fuel dispensing is being driven differently – many bowsers are being built on the ICV platform - be it the 6KL bowser which is built on a 10-tonner ICV vehicle or the 4KL one over a 6.5-tonne partner vehicle.

The Ecomet has been a highly successful model of Ashok Leyland for a long time. The model seems to have touched the customers and has become a proven one. How is it performing in today’s scenario?