Bus demand coming back: VECV CEO

More buses sold in April-July than entire FY22

Bus demand is coming back, with the industry selling more buses in the April-July period of this fiscal than the whole of last year, Vinod Aggarwal, MD and CEO of VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV), said on Wednesday.

Mr. Aggarwal said that within the industry, various segments such as school, staffing and inter-city and tourists, were all coming back to normal.

The bus industry was the worst-hit in the domestic automobile space owing to travel restrictions in the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In the first four months [April-July] of this financial year, the bus market (5-tons and above) was about 19,000 units. As against this, the industry sold a total of 18,000 buses in the full fiscal year of 2021-22,” Mr. Aggarwal told PTI after the launch of a new coach platform and sleeper and seater coaches.

He said this [5-tons] market, which used to be about 65,000-70,000 units at the peak, in 2018-19 has hit rock bottom at just about 11,000 units in FY21 due to the pandemic.

“We can very clearly say that the bus market is coming back and things are getting back to normal now, be it the overall bus market or its various segments. School segment has become almost normal, the staffing segment is also becoming normal because a lot more offices have reopened and people have started travelling to their offices. The intercity and tourists segments are also coming back,” Mr. Aggarwal said.

“We see a very positive outlook for the entire bus industry going forward. The industry is going to get back to normal,” he added.