G BALACHANDARChennai, January 20

The pick-up trucks segmenthas reported a positivegrowth for the second consec-utive quarter, supported by e-commerce, improved con-sumption and a buoyant ruraleconomy.

Pick-ups (Ashok LeylandBada Dost, Tata’s Super Aceand Intra and MahindraBolero) with a gross vehicleweight (GVW) of 2-3.5 tonnesand mini-trucks (Tata Ace)with GVW up to 2 tonnes aretermed as small commercialvehicles, which make upabout 90 per cent of the lightcommercial vehicle (LCV)volumes. Pick-up trucks are alifeline for small businessesand are an integral part of thehub-and-spoke model in thetransportation segment

Key factors for growthWhile mini-trucks are still indecline phase, pick-ups have

recovered with a single-digitpositive growth in Septemberquarter. “Two factors have ad-ded to the robust growth insmall and light commercialvehicles. Revenge shopping infestival season leading tohigher demand of vehiclesfrom e-commerce & whitegoods plus a 2 X vehicle de-mand coming under theSwachh Bharat Mission,” saidNitin Seth, Chief OperatingOffi��cer, Ashok Leyland Ltd.

With new launches and im-proved momentum, theDecember 2020 quarter sawpick-ups register a double-di-git growth of 17 per cent at76,598 units as compared to65,484 units in the year-ago

quarter. In September 2020quarter, pick-ups grew 6 percent. Mini-truck sales fell 9per cent at 51,671 units inDecember 2020 quarter.

“The small commercialcargo segment has recoveredsignifi��cantly on a sequentialbasis growing at 30 per centin Q3 FY21 vs Q2 FY21. Growthin e-commerce and enhancedrural demand were theprimary drivers that contrib-uted to industry growth,” saidVinay Pathak, Vice-President,Product Line, SCV & PU, TataMotors.

As Tata Motors is the onlyplayer to achieve a positivegrowth during the nine-month period of this fi��scal, its

market share jumped signifi��c-antly. Total pick up volumesfor April-December 2020period fell 18 per cent at1,55,916 units, Tata’s pick-upvolumes grew 9 per cent at31,947 units, driven by, accord-ing to the company, success-ful launch of BS-VI pick-ups In-tra and Yodha.

Tata is now the second bigplayer in pick-ups afterMahindra, which reported a25 per cent drop in its pick-uptruck sales at 94,125 units dur-ing the nine-month period ofthis fi��scal.

“We at Tata Motors used theBS-VI migration, as an oppor-tunity to upgrade and holist-ically re-imagine our entire

product portfolio and not justcomply with emission stand-ards to signifi��cantly improvecustomers’ business case,”said Pathak.

Market share With improved sales, Tata’smarket share improved by 4.7per cent to 20.5 per cent whileMahindra’s dropped to 60 percent from 64 per cent year-on-year. Ashok Leyland has main-tained its share at about 19 percent, but has been gainingafter the recent launch of itsBada Dost with host of newfeatures.

“Apart from the e-com-merce sector, even for tradi-tional businesses as supplyand demand became uncer-tain, usage of small goods car-riers for their operations wasa method of optimising lo-gistics capacity. New launchesalways help create a certainbuzz, but now that more eco-nomic activities are being re-sumed and the vaccinationprocess has also started, theSCV segment should be ableto sustain the momentum,”said Suraj Ghosh, PrincipalAnalyst — South Asia Power-train Forecasts, IHS Markit.

Dec quarter saw thesegment growing17% on e-commerceand rural drive

Pick-up trucks in positive growth lane

While mini trucks are still in decline mode, pick-ups recovered with single-digit growth in the Sept quarter