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KOLKATA, May 10

EXIDE Industries Ltd will shortly launch a new type of "low-cost high-performing'' battery for heavy commercial vehicles.

To be sold most probably under the brand name of `Express Highway', it will mainly target the replacement market.

Mr S.B. Ganguly, Chairman of the company, stated that the plan was to sell at least 10,000 such batteries every month from July onwards.

Right now, he regretted, the company's share in the replacement segment for HCV and tractor batteries was less than one per cent, although the potential for this segment was enormous.

The batteries for tractors, launched last November under the brand name of Jai Kisan, had been sold mainly in Gujarat and Rajasthan and as many as 45,000 such batteries were sold between November last year and March this year.

The target for the current year had been set at 20,000 tractor batteries every month, also to cover the southern States, he said.

Mr Ganguly made it clear that the new types of batteries for tractors and HCVs would be sold only on cash-and- carry basis.

In the OE segment, Exide, together with Standard Furukawa brands, covered nearly 90 per cent of the market for cars, tractors and commercial vehicles, both light and heavy types.

However, when it came to the replacement segment, the company's market share dropped for a variety of reasons.

Last year, even the OE segment sale dropped for all types of batteries, except the HCV type which experienced about two to three per cent growth as compared to 32 per cent dip in respect of tractors and 18 per cent in respect of light commercial vehicles.

In the OE segment, the margin was small and the company benefited from the volume sales. In the replacement market, the margin was large, but the volume sale was small, he added.

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Exide Ind to launch new battery for heavy vehicles

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