Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) is keeping its leadership position strongly in the largest LCV goods carrier (2- to 3.5 tonne pick-up) category by volumes. The company commands a 71.75 percent of this segment alone in first four months of this fiscal (April-July 2015) with products like the (now-discontinued) Genio, Bolero Maxi Truck and Bolero Camper.

M&M sold a total of 37,187 units during the four months as against 39,326 units sold in April-July 2014, a YoY fall of 5.43 percent. This can be due to the consistent decline in the overall LCV segment due to overcapacity in the market and unavailability of finance.

In FY14-15, with total sales of 127,755 units in the 2- to 3.5 tonne pick-up category, M&M’s market share stood at 73.25 percent. For the same fiscal, the domestic market size for the stood at 177,134 units. So despite the overall fall in the category, M&M continues to dominate the category with a higher market share. 

During April-July 2015, the company sold a total of 47,621 commercial vehicles, a decline of less than one percent (April-July 2014: 47,930).

Ashok Leyland which has a single product in this category – the Dost small CV designed for a payload of 1.25 tonnes –sold 7,738 units, a YoY growth of 27.64 percent.

Tata Motors, which has a range of products in this category like the Super Ace, Tata 207, Xenon and Winger, registered total sales of 6,421 units in April-July 2015 against 6,656 units it sold April-July 2014, a dip of 3.5 percent YoY.

Tata Motors, in a bid to boost its market share in this category, launched the Super Ace Mint in March this year. The company has had a product in this vehicle category. The Super Ace is powered by the 1.4-litre DICOR common-rail BS IV engine with 1.25 tonne payload. Its successful Ace SCVs are sub-1-tonne payload carriers.

LCV market growing, albeit slowly

The overall LCV segment has been down over the past two fiscals. During FY13-14, sales slid 17.60 % to 432,000 units and by 11.57% to 382,206 units. For the April-July 2015 period, total LCV sales are 114,415 units, down 5.23 % YoY. This is indicative of the rate of decline slowing down.

With the M&HCV segment posting growth for the past 12 months, it is expected the improved market sentiment will help the overall LCV segment to turn positive over the next 8-10 months.

Meanwhile, M&M has recently strengthed its presence in the segment with launch of its new small commercial Jeeto replacing the Gio to boost the last mile distribution. With 8 difference variants, 2 engine options and 3 decks is targeted at sub one tonne segment most notably the Tata Ace.