Shangliao Sun
Research expert covering India
Commercial vehicles in India - statistics and facts
Although the commercial vehicle segment is one of the smaller segments in the Indian automotive sector, it has carved a place for itself to be among the leading commercial vehicle markets across the Asia Pacific region. The commercial vehicle segment in India is strongly associated with other business sectors, usually causing it to be the first one to face the impact and the last one to recover.
Segments
Commercial vehicles in India are segmented by the gross vehicle weight. Primarily, the two categories are light commercial vehicles and medium and heavy commercial vehicles. The former, which has a gross vehicle weight of less than 7.5 metric tons, dominated this sector. Small commercial vehicles, boosted the growth of this segment. A rise in the e-commerce sector, rural consumption, an increase in last-mile connectivity, and a lower total cost of ownership value pillared the growth of this market. New infrastructure projects and fleet replacement were also among the reason for demand creation.Major players
The leading players in the commercial vehicle segment across India were Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra Limited, with the former leading the domestic market. Other players included Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, SML Isuzu Limited, Force India, and Daimler India Commercial Vehicle Private Limited. The latter sold its vehicles under the brand name ‘BharatBenz’ and had a small market share.The future of commercial vehicles in transportation sector
More than half of the nation's freight is transported by road, making commercial vehicles a critical pillar of freight movement. Partially, it was due to the insufficient capacity, low efficiency, reliability and flexibility of the railways industry. However, this might change as the central government has increased investment in the rail infrastructure in recent years. Commercial vehicles are used not only for freight, but also for passenger transportation. With the increasing use of public transportation in the country, the demand for commercial passenger vehicles is expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future.
