Abstract
A Nations economy is well known from its transport system. For rapid growth in economy, a well-developed and well-networked transportation system is essential. As India's transport network is developing at a fast pace, Indian Automobile Industry is growing too. Also, the Automobile industry has strong backward and forward linkages and hence provides employment to a large section of the population. Various types of vehicles are manufactured by the Automobile Industry. Indian Automobile Industry includes the manufacturing of trucks, buses, passenger cars, defense vehicles, two-wheelers, etc. The heavy motors like buses, trucks, defense vehicles, auto rickshaws and other multi-utility vehicles are manufactured by Tata-Telco, Ashok Leyland, Eicher Motors, Bajaj, Mahindra and Mahindra, etc. The rationale behind the study is to know the market share and the potential of Eicher Motors in this competitive segment of automobile and the study area selected is Pune City of Maharashtra. The Indian bus industry is looking up; is changing in-line with the profile of travelers and the development of road infrastructure. The statistics released by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers for the 2015-16 financial year revealed that 43,885 passenger vehicles in the Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicle (M&HCV) category were sold, clocking a growth of 19.13 per cent. In the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) category, 48,960 passenger carriers were sold during the same period, marking a growth of 9.25 per cent. M&HCV and LCV passenger carriers are actually buses (and bus chassis), which make one of the vital integral segments of the Indian automobile industry. They make a common widespread public transport in India, and are categorized into school buses, mini buses, tourist buses, deluxe buses, commuter buses and others depending on their use. The bus market in India, according to a report by Research and Markets is expected to be worth USD 10.34 billion by 2019-20 financial years. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.36 per cent by 2020, driven by an increasing demand for luxury and value. The Paper focuses on the Potential market for Eicher buses in Pune City as the city is considered as one of the IT hubs of India. It is a Cross – sectiona , Conclusive Descriptive Research. It describes the characteristics of relevant groups, such as customers, sales people, and organization or market areas. The Likert scale is used as a scaling technique to know the performance of Eicher Buses in Pune City. For Data collection both Primary and Secondary method is used. Questionnaire is circulated among the customers and the bus drivers. Independent sample Mann-Whitney U test is used to test the hypothesis.