The Tata Ace mini-truck is the leader in the Indian mini-truck market.

Data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers shows that the mini-truck market is declining as larger pickup trucks are displacing them. Last year’s figures have pickups outselling mini-trucks 140,000 vehicles to 131,000. Estimates for this year put the pickup market at nearly 200,000. Increased urbanization and improving road conditions are driving the pickup trend according to industry executives. The pickup trucks can carry more cargo and have more horsepower than mini-trucks whose sales declined last year by 21% from nearly 167,000 units the year before.  Learn more:  Business-standard.com

Comment:  The decline in the mini-truck market would appear to be a problem for the Polaris-Eicher joint venture which just launched their Multix vehicle. However, the Multix is being positioned as a multi-purpose vehicle that users can easily transition from using for work to using for family purposes to even using for power generation, since the vehicle also has a generator that can be used for operating tools or provide electricity to the home. A primary target for the Multix is the rural and semi-urban independent business person. In contrast, urbanization is cited as one reason for the decline in the mini-truck market. It would be interesting to see the breakdown of where mini-truck sales have been declining, in terms of urban versus rural.