Eicher Trucks and Buses, part of VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd, has recently launched Eicher Pro 5000 Series – a brand new range of heavy-duty trucks with BS-IV technology. On the sidelines of the launch event, P Ravishankar, EVP – Sales and Aftermarkets, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd talks about the company’s readiness to move to new emission norms. Excerpts:

How do you look at the Supreme Court’s decision on ban of BS-III vehicles?
It’s a welcome move for us. As an organisation, we accept anything that contributes to reduction of pollution as it is always beneficial for the society as a whole. We have prepared ourselves for this move well in advance and have been selling BS-IV vehicles for the better part of last year because the southern and western regions of the country has already moved to the BS-IV. We have sold more than 12,000 vehicles which are BS-IV enabled. We would also like to highlight that we export BS-VI ready blocks back to Volvo, for fitment of their trucks worldwide. As we are already producing BS-VI capable engines, transition from BS-III to BS-IV vehicles was not at all a big challenge for us.

Was the industry as a whole ready for this move?
Of course, the industry as a whole was fully ready for this move. All the big players had already started producing BS-IV vehicles since last year. We all have been working on it for years as it takes a long time to get all the technologies in place.

It has been reported that the auto industry has made a loss of around Rs 12,000 crore due to the ban on selling BS-III vehicles. What about Eicher Trucks & Buses?
We can’t talk about the industries as we don’t have the numbers. However, for Eicher, we haven’t faced any loss. We had cut production by 50 per cent of our BS-III vehicles and launched a new range of heavy-duty trucks in 16-tonne to 40-tonne categories with BS-IV technology. This talks about our preparedness.

Could you briefly tell about the unique features of this new series?
With the introduction of Eicher Pro 5000 series, today we have the widest range of heavy duty trucks at various price points. The new trucks are designed and developed to deliver unmatched reliability through highly efficient E694 engine that has advanced first-in-the-industry features like fuel coaching and cruise control.

Eicher Pro 5000 Series
• Pro 5000 Series: All new range of heavy duty rigid haulage trucks, tractors and tippers from 16T to 40T GVW with BS-IV technology.

• Engine: E694 engine with the intelligent i3 EGR technology with new generation Volvo Group’s Engine Management System – EMS 3.0.

• IDIS: Intelligent Driver Information Systems with fuel coaching and cruise control.

• EPS: Equipped with Engine Protection System to ensure a longer engine life.

• Supported by Lifetime Support Solutions.

• Widest range of products to suit the needs of all types of customer segments in basic, value and premium segments with both i3-EGR and SCR technologies.

P Ravishankar, EVP – Sales and Aftermarkets, VE Commercial Vehicles Ltd

As we are already producing BS-VI capable engines, transition from BS-III to BS-IV vehicles was not at all a big challenge for us.