Piaggio to take another shot at mini-truck market - Economic Times

MUMBAI: After failing to create a dent in the mini-truck space with its Ape Mini, Piaggio Vehicles India - the Italian light commercial vehicle major's Indian subsidiary - is making another attempt to succed in the segment with its global range of Porter Mini Trucks. ET has learnt that the Porter 600 - a 0.5-tonne micro truck - and Porter 1000 - a 0.75-tonne mini truck - are likely to be launched in the next one month and will be pitted against Tata Motors' Ace Zip and Ace and Mahindra & Mahindra's Maxximo. The company also has plans to introduce 1.5-tonne truck based on the Porter platform. Ravi Chopra, MD, Piaggio Vehicles India, told ET: "Built on an all-new platform, the Porter vehicles aim to offer more than the competition in terms of power, fuel efficiency, gradability. Though the segment (sub one-tonne) is slowing, it is one of the largest segments in the mini-truck space, we hope to have at least a 10% market share." The Porter range of trucks will replace the Ape Mini range, which did not get the desired response from the market. Launched in 2009, the monthly sales of Ape Minis have come down to a few hundreds. With a capacity of 1,00,000 units of four-wheeler mini-trucks, Piaggio's utilisation has been abysmally low. Download ET's mobile applicati ons for iPad, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Nokia and Windows Phone to track news as it happens, live stock quotes, monitor portfolio, get market stats like gainers, losers and movers & much more. To check out free Economic Times apps , Click here "Built on an all-new platform, the Porter vehicles aim to offer more than the competition in terms of power, fuel efficiency, gradability. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEaJABmOLnynl3uDHHL97Pan_F0oA&url=http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/auto/automobiles/piaggio-to-take-another-shot-at-mini-truck-market/articleshow/18941660.cms

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