“Allowing customers to get better productivity, reliability and efficiency”

The Government is making favorable policies to support the infrastructure growth in India as part of reform. So, what doors it opens for Construction Equipment sector?

The government continues to place priority on building roads and bridges—allocating budget to build 35,000 km of road under phase one of the Bharatmala project, along with allocations for urban rail and airport expansion projects. As a company, Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has deep roots in India and an established sales and support network. We remain the only major manufacturer present in all equipment sectors: mining, road building or general construction.

We offer high quality and productive equipment that delivers the best levels of fuel efficiency in the industry. With Volvo CE, our customers can do more with their equipment and downtime is minimized. Our lower fuel consumption improves cost efficiency and means work environments are cleaner. Overall, our customers can enjoy high levels of return on investment and the reassurance of dealing with one of the world’s very best industrial companies.

Any potential challenge could come from global developments; for example, a spike in oil prices, which could impact economic growth in India.

We see opportunities for growth in the mining segment, specifically with coal, because the government is opening coal mining for private companies. Even though it’s still in the early stages, these projects will increase production capacity. Over the past few years, iron mining production has been lower, but we expect the government to address legal bottlenecks, which should lead to higher production volumes in India.

How do you see the growth of Excavators in the Indian CE market?

As mentioned above, the government’s push for infrastructure developments projects (especially Smart City, Road & Railway’s) will see increased interest in the EC200D, which is designed specifically for job sites which challenges for high productivity at low operational cost. The new EC200D offers premium Volvo CE features including world-class Operator Cab, Fuel Efficiency, Productivity, Serviceability & Safety. The EC200D’s high engine torque at low rpm & lifting capabilities make it the natural choice for contractors in India.

The Volvo EC200D is a solid performer overall, which offers excellent controllability & speed in segments such as General Construction, Road Construction, Building Construction and Utility work.  It is configured with a 5.7 m boom, 2.9 m arm with 0.92 m3 bucket & powered by 4 cylinder Volvo D5 engine with maximum forces across its operations thus making it, the most cost effective solution provider in its category. The powerful engine works in harmony with the optimized hydraulics and unique ECO-mode for lower fuel consumption, fast cycle time & high lifting capability.

The operators feel right at home in the cab too, as it features ergonomic design which provides the best comfort and visibility synonymous with Volvo machines. The EC200D is extremely easy to control and the superior stability secures smooth and efficient operation of the machine.

R&D contributes to the sustainability of a business, given that tell us in detail about versatile product line and role of R&D to beat the competition.

Volvo CE has a reputation for bringing the latest technologies and innovations to this industry, allowing customers to get better productivity, reliability and efficiency from their operations.

Volvo’s Co-Pilot, for example, offers a range of intelligent machine services – including Load Assist, Haul Assist, Pave Assist and Dig Assist – to help operators deliver higher quality outcomes, in less time and with less effort. These examples of automated and assist-functionalities differentiate Volvo’s machines in the market.

We have also offered customers CareTrack, a telematics system that gives equipment owners access to a wide range of machine monitoring information that can help save time and money. The system generates a wide range of reports with data on aspects such as fuel consumption, operational hours, geographical location and more. These reports are available via a web portal or can be received via SMS or email alerts. CareTrack can also be used to manage machine servicing and wear parts. This allows fleet managers to reduce fuel costs, optimize machine and operator performance, as well as proactively manage service and maintenance to maximize uptime. CareTrack is offered not as a standard practice but as specialized packages designed to enhance customers’ businesses.

Customers say they like the insight CareTrack provides, which supports them with maintenance, invoicing, fleet management and operator training. With CareTrack, customers can monitor load efficiency, number of cycles, overload percentages and identify operator training needs. For example, CareTrack can tell owners what time the machine operation starts, takes a break, and ends. What’s more, CareTrack allows owners to tap into a wealth of actionable data including fuel consumption, idle time, machine location, fluid levels and service alerts. With the time and labor savings CareTrack offers, customers say they view it as an investment rather than extra costs.

As owners are pushed to deliver more with less, CareTrack is a great way to proactively manage machines and increase uptime by planning service and maintenance requirement in advance, avoiding potential problems. It’s also possible for Volvo CE dealers to troubleshoot faults remotely—minimizing service and downtime. 

“With the rise of autonomous vehicles and other advances in power and technology, the capabilities of tomorrow’s roads will be quite different to todays. However, the fundamental structure of roads is unlikely to change much. Given that, it is also unlikely there will be any dramatic change in the processes or equipment used for road building, at least not in the coming 10-20 years”

 What are the recent trends and advances in the field of Construction Equipment sector?

With the rise of autonomous vehicles and other advances in power and technology, the capabilities of tomorrow’s roads will be quite different to todays. However, the fundamental structure of roads is unlikely to change much. Given that, it is also unlikely there will be any dramatic change in the processes or equipment used for road building, at least not in the coming 10-20 years.

What we are seeing is that road building contractors being pressurized to increase productivity both in the size of the roads they build and the speed with which they complete them.

At Volvo CE, we have an advanced and coordinated research and development program that has built up over the years and is demonstrated in the industry-leading productivity and fuel efficiency levels we deliver. This superior productivity and fuel efficiency are helping to drive advancement in the road building industry.

Into the future it’s difficult to say exactly how new technology will change the industry but in broad terms Volvo’s pursuit of electrically-driven vehicles could be a game changer. Recently, our company unveiled the world’s first fully-electric compact excavator, the EX2, which is equipped with electric drive systems and electromechanical linear actuators.

Similarly, our work on autonomous machines has also produced very positive results and could have serious ramifications for the road building industry. In 2016, we introduced the HX1, a concept loader that laid out our vision for the future. With so many duty cycle operations in road building it stands to reason that some form of autonomous operations could benefit this field in future

Tell us about your preparations for bauma Conexpo India. What excite you about this show.

bauma Conexpo is one of the largest construction tradeshows in Asia. It’s always nice to meet with existing and new customers to share our latest technology and offerings during the show. We believe that this will be a good opportunity for us to showcase the lifetime value of Volvo Construction Equipment, not just the equipment itself, but also our experts and aftermarket service support. We will be introducing two new models to the region: a new large-capacity wheel loader and an asphalt compactor. The two new machines will help Indian contractors meet the growing demand for high-performing, reliable equipment for infrastructure projects such as road building, mining and earthmoving.