'There is no impact of elections on the market'

At a time when the industry is expecting an election impact on commercial vehicle (CV) sales, SHENU AGARWAL, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Ashok Leyland, believes that the segment may do well during the first half of this financial year.

In an interview with Shine Jacob, Agarwal also talks about the company's capital expenditure (capex), funding plans in electric vehicle (EV) arm Switch and growth in bus sales. Edited excerpts:

There were expectations that CV sales would be affected because of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls., What is the trend on the ground?

Around DecemberJanuary, there was this huge sentiment that there would be some high base effect, some tapering down of the industry because of a negative cycle and the impact of elections. The general view in the industry was that in the first half, it may see some degrowth, in the range of 1015 per cent.

Some reports said that, overall for the year, the industry will be negative in the range of 4-7 per cent.

Ashok Leyland felt that there is no indication of a downfall in the industry.