Re: Top Indian executives leave Foton Motor India Sad to hear this. Foton is a big, big player in the Chinese commercial vehicle market.
But its not hard to see why they are supposedly withdrawing from the market. They have broadly 3 product categories:
- The Pickup: Whatever market is there for pickups, it is relatively small in India. Forget big boy Mahindra, even fighting with Tata would be difficult. Then, Isuzu - a better known brand with superior quality - has brought in its pickup at 6 lakhs! Isuzu's factory is under construction. Foton's pickup really didn't have a chance. No, we don't want big guzzling diesels either.
- The SUV: No one is going to buy an expensive SUV from an unknown brand. This would be a showroom wallpaper at best.
- Commercial Vehicles: Tata & Ashok Leyland control 75 - 80% of the market (Tata is the God of CVs with 60% market share). Volvo has carved out its own loyal following. That means, the remaining 10 - 15% is fought between AMW, Eicher, Bharat Benz etc. This isn't expected to change in the near future and Tata recently announced 100 new CVs (including variants, of course). Where does that leave Foton?
Chinese manufacturers will definitely come to India one day. But they're still not there yet. And they're going to need a differentiator. Here's a post from an actual Foton owner: Quote:
Originally Posted by Champion Owning and operating a FOTON vehicle, I wouldn't say the above (no offence mate!). No FOTON vehicle (would not include the other Chinese manufacturers) is any close to the quality of Indian manufacturers. But of course, if we mean "Indian manufacturers" as in like HM, Sonalika or the kind, true perhaps. But then it would only be at par with these. I remember when my driver sat on the van for the first time, he said "Bhaiyya, yeh tho hamare ambassador jaisa hai!" (Brother, this is just like our ambassador). This despite the fact that, on paper, it boasted of so many functions which was astounding to my driver himself, who was driving a Nissan Urvan until then.
However, FOTON could be the volume player here. Like somebody earlier pointed out, there isn't that kind of manufacturer to challenge the volumes manufacturers in our country. Only niche players. So if you say FOTON is a formidable force to reckon with in the Indian scenario, I agree. But if you say, its quality is way above Indian manufacturers', NO WAY! We shouldn't generalise on Chinese products as such. We are being specific about a particular company here. As for the quality of the Chinese products, I know that for what you pay, that you get. Top brands from around the world have their manufacturing facility in China, and there's no dearth of quality in any of their manufactured products. A far more developed country it is (thanks to the communist regime), and has got the right kind of manufacturing zones for specific products. All good and agreed. But not FOTON. Simple.
Cherio
Champion | |