Italian automaker Piaggio is preparing to rollout new products in the Indian market soon to boost its share and revenues. While the company continues to focus on ramping up the dealer network for its commercial vehicle and two-wheeler business, it is proposing to launch a new passenger three-wheeler and a cargo four-wheeler in the next couple of months.
The company will launch a new Ape Pax City petrol three-wheeler by next month or early October. This will be in the small pax segment, which accounts for about 50 per cent of the Indian three-wheeler passenger segment. It will also launch a four-wheel mini-truck, which will sport a new in house 1,000cc diesel engine, according to Piaggio group’s financial documents.
As part of strategy plan 2011-14, Piaggio has planned to consolidate three-wheeler market leadership and develop new products to protect its market share in Indian. In the highly competitive four-wheeler SCV (small commercial vehicle) segment, it will focus on enhancing product portfolio and market share besides ramping up network and facilitating retail financing.
Piaggio feels the time is right for the market launch of its new passenger three-wheeler as passenger category of three-wheeler in India turned positive during the April-June quarter after tough Q1 of the ongoing calendar year. “Three wheel passenger sales grew by about five per cent at 125,937 units in the domestic market during April-July period of the current financial year. This segment reported five per cent decline in volumes at 406,236 units in FY12,” according to Siam.
The company is betting big on its new Ape Pax City as it seeks to gain a substantial share of the market. The total market size of the segment is estimated at 200,000 units and Bajaj is the leader in the segment.
“Bajaj Auto is the clear market leader in the passenger carrier segment with about 66 per cent market share, Piaggio is the market leader in the goods carrier segment with about 55 per cent market share,” according to an Icra report.
The diesel-based three-wheeler goods carrier segment has been witnessing a decline due to increasing popularity of the 4W SCVs. As a result, the Paiggio’s overall market share has declined from about 30 per cent to 23 per cent over the past two years. It offers Apé City passenger (available in petrol, diesel, CNG and LPG versions) in the autorickshaw segment and Apé Truk and Apé Mini in the LCV segment.
“Bajaj has been the industry pioneer and has remained the leading three-wheeler manufacturer/exporter from India over the past four decades. The company has an installed capacity of 5.4 lakh units a year. It enjoys over 30 per cent Ebitda margins in the three-wheeler business. It also enjoys near monopoly in the three-wheeler passenger auto-rickshaws segment, which forms the major chunk of the segment sales in the country. Besides, with well established brands and deeply penetrated distribution network in the major exports markets, the company boosts of about 87 per cent market share in three-wheeler exports,” pointed out Icra report.
During 2011, Piaggio’s Indian arm Piaggio Vehicles reported a marginal growth of 2.5 per cent in commercial vehicle sales at about 2.25 lakh units, which was about 34 per cent of Piaggio’s total global vehicle sales.
