The Indian subsidiary of Daimler Truck, DICV has revealed its latest BharatBenz heavy-duty truck. It has also disclosed the product strategy of the company for Indian auto market, using the platform provided by the Delhi Auto Expo. DICV is offering the BharatBenz, which is the first ever truck from the company that has been indigenously built in India. The truck is going to make its foray into the medium and heavy duty commercial vehicle market in India, which has a lot of potential. In recent times, India is rated No.3 as far as truck markets across the world goes. It crossed the 300,000 units mark in the year 2011.
A senior executive of the company, Andreas Renschler has strongly emphasized the importance that the company is given in launching this commercial vehicle. He has said that the strategy of the company has a strong focus towards profitable growth. Hence, the company is pushing towards increasing sales through its existing markets and also by entering new ones. Its strategy calls for global as well as local operations, as per the merits of the situation.
As per Renschler, the company strategy is perfectly reflected by the latest BharatBenz trucks. The trucks have been designed on the basis of the existing CV platform of Daimler. But, the truck has been designed by Indian specialists, in order to give it a more local flavor of the Indian market, where it is going to operate. This has been the most effective strategy by the Company for participating in this growing volume segment of India. The product range is going to focus on reliability, efficiency and quality and is going to target the contemporary domestic segment that has been exhibiting huge potential for growth and is also reflecting the changing demands of the Indian customers.
The entire line-up of BharatBenz trucks is going to be unveiled on the 2nd of March, 2012. The trucks are from a range of 6 tonne to 49 tonne. The heavy-duty trucks are going to be built on the platform of the Mercedes-Benz Axor whereas the medium-duty variants are based on Fighter and Fuso Canter series. The trucks have been designed to meet emission standards set by India’s BS III.
Marc Llistosella, CEO-DICV has said that the production of the vehicles will start at the company’s latest Oragadam plant, located near Chennai. The production is expected to start by 1st quarter of 2012 and the plant is going to be inaugurated on the 18th of April. The initial capacity of production has been kept at 36,000 units but DICV is keeping the option open to double it to 72,000 annual units.
BharatBenz, the fifth brand of Daimler Trucks, which the company unveiled in 2011 February, will be launching 17 new products within March 2014. All such products are going to be launched at minimum localization levels of 85%. Out of the total list of 450 suppliers incorporated, around 75% will be making their debut with Daimler, a company that sources components worth Euro 15 billion annually. The truck maker is also planning to increase sourcing from the Indian market to cater to its world wide operations.
As far as dealership is concerned, it is being said that Daimler has received interests from 465 dealers across 70 Indian locations. Daimler is planning to incorporate 110 dealer points by the year ending 2012. DICV is also planning to hold an exhibition of its products at Hyderabad in the month of March 2012.
