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| The author in the medium duty Eicher delivery truck, which reportedly gives 7 km/l on Gauteng with a load of sand. |
EICHER is a new truck brand in South Africa that was launched at
TruckX Expo at Kyalami last week by VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), a 2008 joint
venture by Volvo Group and Eicher Motors
Vice president and head VECV in South Africa, Surender Singh
Rajpurohit, said Eicher trucks already operated in the 30 countries, and they
are known everywhere as “the king of mileage”.
“Our campaign is based on the challenge, ‘beat me if you can’ —
this is an open challenge — that is how confident we are, said Rajpurohit.
He said South Africa is the 31st country in which Eicher will sell,
adding it is a strategic market for VECV
“The company plans to continuously invest in the introduction of
country specific products and aftermarket infrastructure,” Rajpurohit
said.
Commenting on aftersales support he said Eicher trucks have joined
hands with Bidvest Panalpina Logistics (BPL) as its 3PL partner.
“A huge investment has already been made to ensure parts
availability. Currently the warehouse has a parts availability of over 2600 line
items.”
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| Eicher boss in South Africa, Surender Singh Rajpurohit |
Rajpurohit said Eicher trucks will initially sold and serviced at
14 dealers of well-established dealership groups such as AAD Group, BB Motor
group, Billson Trucks, CMH Group, Fleet Dynamics, Imperial Group & Premier
Truck and Bus.
He said VECV brings together, the Volvo Group’s global expertise
and world-class technology along with the innovative engineering and proven DNA
of fuel efficiency from Eicher.
In the first phase of its introduction, Eicher is introducing the
Pro Series of haulage trucks, which will be followed by construction tippers.
The haulage trucks have been tested for more than 500 000
kilometres across Africa and Asia, and subjected to rigorous endurance and
performance testing for over 200,000 kilometres in South Africa.
“This truck has been put into actual usage across various
applications of few well renowned fleet operators.
“Testing results have turned out extremely positive especially in
terms of fuel efficiency and uptime of the trucks,” he said.
The Eicher Pro is powered with a next-generation engine with common
rail technology and Volvo Group Engine Management System (EMS 3.0).
Speaking to a few of the diesel machanics that have been testing
the trucks, Wheels learned Eicher’s
boasts of world-class technology that deliver the best balance between load and
fuel efficiencies are well founded.
And having poked and prodded the cabins of the Eicher Pro series
trucks as well as the tipper, I can vouche for their comfortable design.
All have air conditioning and heaters and reportedly meeting AIS
029 safety standards, thanks to airbrakes, ABS and exhaust brakes.
The Eicher trucks will be assembled at the Nissan UD plantin
Rosslyn, north of Pretoria.
MD of UD Trucks, Gert Swanepoel, told Wheels the Eicher trucks from India will not competing in the
same niche as the new Croner from UD in Japan.
The Croner replaceces the robust but diesel-heavy UD 60 to UD 100
models that have been in service for over two decades in southern Africa.
