Eicher Motors Ltd has added a new 3S dealer in Pune to the 102 it already has nationwide. Pune is a strategic market for Eicher as it accounts for almost 40 percent of CV sales in Maharashtra outside the Mumbai region.

Srushti Automotive, Eicher’s 14th dealer in Maharashtra, opened its spanking new showroom and dedicated workshop for the brand’s light, medium, and heavy trucks at Wakad on the westerly bypass last fortnight. Srushti belongs to the Pashankar Group, which also operates dealerships for Honda two-wheelers and Audi, GM, and Mitsubishi cars in Pune.

Together with another dedicated workshop on Solapur Road, Srushti now has 10 repair bays in addition to express bays for accident repair, upholding Eicher’s reputation for excellent service availability nationwide with one service bay for every 90 vehicles, a figure neither of its two larger competitors can boast. In addition to its authorised dealers, the sales and service network also includes 46 authorised dealer branches (all 3S), 37 authorised service centres, and 17 spare parts distributors.

With an army of over 7,000 company-trained mechanics and a turnover of Rs 142 crore from its spares business in 2007, Eicher is positioned to derive the highest value in the industry from its service offerings.

CEO A Ramasubramanian said the “Rs 3,000-plus crore” company has been a pioneer in the CV industry in many respects, but especially in the area of R&D, ever since it took the decision to manufacture heavy trucks a decade and a half ago. He said it was forced to design its vehicles from the ground up to be able to produce them more cost-effectively than the established competition.

“We managed to engineer our first heavy truck, the Jumbo 20.16, a good one tonne lighter than every other truck in its class, which of course allowed us to save on steel costs but also gave buyers the advantage of that much greater payload,” he told reporters.

The company spent just Rs 110 crore ($30 million) developing this vehicle using virtual processes, compared to $2 billion it would cost to bring a new truck to market anywhere in the world, he pointed out.Eicher was also first out with an ICV (the 11.10 11-tonner) eight years ago. This is a segment that is set to grow in a big way with the anticipated introduction of Tata’s Y1 platform next year.

In fact its 32,000 square feet factory in Pithampur is the “world’s smallest with a capability to produce 50,000 trucks” (it currently does 42,000). An investment of Rs 100 crore this last year (ended March) will help take production up from 160 trucks a day to 300 in the near future.