• Technical Consulting
• Strategic Consulting
  • Profile
  • Thought Leadership
  • Industries
    • Passenger Cars
    • Commercial Vehicles
    • Agricultural & Industrial Vehicles
    • Aerospace
    • Rail
    • Marine
    • High Performance Vehicles & Motorsport
    • Motorcycles & Personal Transportation
    • Defence
  • Services
  • Careers
• Software
• Ricardo Knowledge
• Information Services
• Seminars & Training
• Environmental Consulting

This market, like the heavy truck market, is highly cyclical and has suffered from the recent global economic downturn.

Agricultural Vehicles

Due to continued industrialisation of agriculture in countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia the market for agricultural vehicles is believed to be set for significant growth. In these markets the continual drive for increased automation and greater productivity feeds growing demand for new, cleaner and more capable agricultural equipment.

Major technological trends for agricultural vehicles include:

• Direct injected engines will start to replace the older IDI (Indirect Injection Engine) and naturally aspirated units, particularly in emerging markets
• Electronic control modules will be increasingly used for engine control, emissions and diagnostics
• Increasing emissions demands will drive the adoption of technology from the automotive sector
• Biofuel technologies support “green movement” requirements being driven by end customers of agricultural products, particularly in western countries

Industrial Vehicles

Construction vehicles form a major part of the industrial vehicle sector; this segment has historically realized and maintained a high profit margin.

Weakness in the historically large markets of Western Europe, North America, Japan and the Middle East has heavily impacted the construction equipment makers, as demand for new construction equipment has plummeted and shifted eastwards. Emerging markets continue with strong growth. The industry benefits from large government funded infrastructure projects in such places as China and India.

The predominant challenge for the sector in the coming years will be changing emission legislation. By 2015 the legislative emission gap between On- and Off-highway will be reduced to around 2 years. At the same time, customers are demanding higher efficiency and reliability, as well as lower service and maintenance costs. The resulting growth in the deployment of electronics, hydraulics and software also means challenges in product integration.

Furthermore, the amount of high-value 2nd hand equipment and remanufactured products are forecast to grow in the market, presenting additional competitive pressure along with additional profit opportunities for companies in this sector.

Why choose Ricardo

Ricardo offers a broad range of services to this sector including market and technology studies, product quality and cost improvement programs as well as market expansion studies. We understand the unique challenges at engine, vehicle systems, and transmission and driveline engineering as well as global market conditions.  

We support manufacturers in developing markets by helping them build critical capabilities, such as research and development, quality and supplier management capabilities.

RSC has conducted several projects for global clients in developed and emerging markets in such fields of market entry strategy, technical due diligence, after sales product portfolio optimization, and  supplier integration have been a few of our latest engagements. 

Read more Agricultural & Industrial Vehicles