Capital Equipment News September 2019

A year later, Rodney Selesnick, senior head: Sales and Marketing at ESI, tells Capital Equipment News that the FT range has fared very well during its first year in the market. “By December 2019, we should be well on target to have sold some 300 units since the introduction in mid-2018,” he says.“We have done fairly well during our debut year with the FT product range. We initially, in 2018, launched the first two units – the FT3 (3,5 t chassis) and FT5 (5 t chassis) last year, and followed that up with the FT8 (6,5-7 t chassis) earlier this year,” says Selesnick. “We were initially sceptical about the uptake of the FT8, but we have actually sold out our initial stock, surpassing our expectations.” A key competitive edge is the robust, but competitively priced product that comes with no extra “bells and whistles”, yet it it meets all expectation. Selesnick believes that there is definitely an appetite for a right-priced, but properly supported truck in this market segment. With that balance, the same recipe which has seen Powerstar becoming a dominant force in the construction vehicle segment of the local extra heavy commercial vehicle market, ESI believes it is properly armed to rival the dominance of the Japanese offering, which obviously has a large piece of the pie in the medium commercial vehicle market. “We are very happy with our first year numbers. We have definitely brought in a product that is, first of all, priced right, and secondly, has the ability to deliver the same job as well as its Japanese competitors. We have also allocated the product to specialist dealers to sell and service it. The selected dealers are not only trained technicians in their own right, but they are properly trained and certified by the original component suppliers, Cummins, ZF and Webco,” he says. Product quality From a product perspective, the Powerstar FT range is in the same high-quality technology bracket as the other Powerstar products. The range is powered by Cummins engines and is driven by ZF drivetrains. Several Chinese truck manufacturers have over the years leveraged the Cummins and ZF componentry as their competitive edge. However, Selesnick argues that while some of the competitor trucks are powered by Cummins and are surely driven by ZF transmissions, the warranty is not carried by the local Cummins and ZF entities; it is actually carried by OEMs in China. A key competitive edge of the Powerstar FT range is that support of these components is done

Ever Star Industries launched the Powerstar FT range last year, allowing the company to offer a medium commercial vehicle for the first time.

“We are very happy with our first year numbers. We have definitely brought in a product that is, first of all, priced right, and secondly, has the ability to deliver the job as well as its Japanese competitors.”

Rodney Selesnick, senior head: Sales and Marketing at Ever Star Industries

TALKING POINT

Equipped with a simple, well-priced and rugged product that is complemented by good aftersales support regimes, "value" truck makers are challenging for a sizeable share of the medium commercial vehicle market in South Africa

The simple, rugged product directly speaks to the needs of the “value” driven customer seeking reliability at a lower price point

Last year, Powerstar, supplied locally by Ever Star Industries, became the latest Chinese OEM to enter the fiercely contested South African medium commercial vehicle segment following its joint venture with Foton

The Powerstar FT range has fared very well during its first year in the market, and ESI expects to meet on its 300- unit target by December this year

QUICK TAKE

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS SEPTEMBER 2019 17