Eicher Trucks and Buses, part of VE Commercial Vehicles announced its foray into the sub 5 tonne category of commercial vehicles; with the launch of Eicher Pro 1049 (Eicher Pro 1000 series). The Eicher Pro 1049 comes with the longest cargo body (10 feet) and highest payload (4.9 tonne GVW) in the segment.  This compact, powerful, spacious and fuel efficient mini truck has been designed to cater to the last mile distribution in urban, semi-urban and rural areas across the country. The Eicher Pro 1049 offers great value to the customer bringing the best of both worlds – a pickup vehicle and a truck to provide maximum lifetime profitability. With this launch, Eicher Trucks and Buses plans to strengthen its leadership in the Light and Medium Duty (LMD) segment and is aligned with the company’s commitment to usher in the future of Indian trucking with next generation products and technologies.

The Eicher Pro 1049 offers best in class fuel efficiency and better turnaround time in Sub 5 tonne GVW category. The highlights of the truck comprise of convenient and effortless loading and unloading, easy maintenance and longer service intervals, thus ensuring the safety of goods and superior uptime. The robust payload capacity and loading area makes the Eicher Pro 1049 the most profitable for multiple segments within intra city distribution such as food and vegetables, milk, egg, poultry, water bottle and LPG cylinder distribution, e-commerce and grocery.

‘Mini Truck Mega Space’ offers:
• 4.9 tonne GVW and 2.7 tonne rated pay load among best in the segment
• 5.6 sq. metres of best in class loading area designed to carry maximum goods (largest in the segment)
• Longest cargo body of 10 feet  and 1357 mm deck height for easy of loading and unloading
• Best in class service intervals with 3 years unlimited km run warranty on engine and gearbox + 1 year unlimited km warranty on vehicle
• Proven, high performance E-483 engine available in BSIII and BSIV variants for best-in-class fuel mileage, high pickup and acceleration and turnaround time
• Spacious and comfortable cabin area (0.5 x 2 metres) for best in class visibility and equipped with all host of  features of Pro 1000 series for superior driving comfort
• Hybrid gearshift and tilt and telescopic mechanism steering to offers less gear shifting effort in tough city conditions and reduces driver fatigue.

According to Shyam Maller, Senior Vice President,  VE Commercial Vehicles, “The Light and Medium Duty Segment in the commercial vehicle industry, especially in the sub 5 tonne category has great potential to grow as it addresses the critical last mile connectivity and distribution network in rural, semi-urban and urban areas. In 2015, market size of 3.5 – 5 tonne LMD segment stands at 8080 units and the growth in this segment looks very promising.”

Maller further added, ‘’2016 Q1 has been great for us. In LMD, Eicher Trucks and Buses commanded 33.8 per cent market share and grew by 31.7 per cent outpacing industry growth of 25.5 per cent. The Eicher Pro 1049 marks our entry into the critical sub 5 tonne segment and we plan to leverage this opportunity significantly and enhance Eicher’s market share in the LMD segment.’’

Commenting on the value the Eicher Pro 1049 Maller said, “The Eicher Pro 1000 series is an indigenously designed vehicle at our Pithampur plant that targets the value segment with best in class rated payload, high fuel efficiency, superior uptime and lower maintenance cost for transport operator, enabling faster trips and manoeuvrability and therefore meeting timely delivery and pick up requirements.” Eicher Pro 1049 is readily available for sales at company’s authorised dealerships at all key locations pan India.

Aligning with the business ambitions of the customers and providing lifetime profitability in the segment, Eicher also launched a multi-level marketing campaign – Mini Truck Mega Space. The campaign tagline ‘BadaKaro BadaBano’ highlights the key USP’s of the Eicher Pro 1049 – extra loading space advantage and profitable growth and progress providing freedom to go beyond current boundaries and do something bigger.

In line with this marketing campaign, Eicher plans to engage with customers nationwide starting with Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bengaluru from April 2016 onwards. In phase II, the company plans to expand its promotions in other critical markets like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Assam and West Bengal.