Ravindra Pisharody, Head of Commercial Vehicle Business at Tata Motors, India’s largest truck maker by sales, admits that the number of inquiries to buy new trucks has almost disappeared, but he says he is confident that demonetisation will be a “distant memory” in the next six months when the government starts spending on infrastructure. The truckers will eventually get used to the cashless ways, and explained how the cyclicality and the upside of the CV (commercial vehicle) cycle was impacted by events such as GST and demonetisation. He now expects the CV market to regain its peak in FY19.
He says, “By January-March period, people would have found a way. Like you and I have our jobs, truckers will also have theirs. They will find a way and maybe transactions will become more cashless. Maybe people who don’t accept cards will start accepting them. By January, we’ll see things settling down. So, the incentive for vehicle purchase will happen, particularly with BS-IV, new technology coming in and it’ll be heavily on the minds of owners which will lead to 7-10% price increase.”
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