Daimler Shows First Made-in-India Truck, with Entire Series to Follow

The first product of Daimler AG's commercial-truck venture in the Indian subcontinent, a new BharatBenz brand heavy-duty vehicle, has been unveiled by Daimler India Commercial Vehicles. It heads a new series of heavy, medium- and light-duty trucks for the expanding Indian market.

The cab-over-engine trucks are based on existing Daimler and Fuso vehicles, said Andreas Renschler, the Daimler Board of Management member responsible for commercial trucks and buses. The entire range will be shown on March 2.

"Indian specialists developed the trucks for the local market, where they are also built," Renschler said. "This is the most effective way for us to participate in the growth of India's volume segment."

India has become the world's third largest truck market, with 300,000 units built and sold in 2011, he said.

"Our strategy focuses on profitable growth. We want to boost our sales in existing markets as well as new ones," Renschler said. "Our strategy for the new growth markets is to operate as globally as possible, on the one hand, and as locally as necessary on the other."

The entire BharatBenz lineup will be in the 6- to 49-ton range, he explained. The heavy-duty truck will be built on the Mercedes-Benz Axor platform, and light- and medium-duty trucks will be based on the Canter and Fighter series from Fuso, Daimler's Japanese subsidiary. Engines will meet India's BS III emissions standard, which is comparable to Euro III.

The new trucks represent "a successful synergy of Indian engineering and German DNA," Marc Llistosella, DICV's managing director and CEO, told reporters in New Delhi. "We will offer modern trucks that will redefine the Indian trucking experience."

Quality of the trucks was a major goal.

"To ensure maximum reliability of the trucks from the very start, they have been through 4 million kilometers of intensive testing on our test track in Oragadam and have been assessed under the most strenuous driving conditions," Llistosella added.

The range of BharatBenz commercial vehicles will be manufactured at a new plant in southern India, he said. Production trial runs for engines and transmissions have already begun.

The plant's initial production capacity will be 36,000 units per year and can be ramped up to 70,000 units per year. The plant will cost over 44 billion Indian rupees (about $905 million).

In the past few months, DICV has set up a network of more than 450 Indian suppliers and dealerships with over 70 locations, with plans to expand that. This included stringent quality and due diligence tests for each enterprise, Llistosella said.

DICV has some of India's leading car and commercial vehicle dealerships on board. Daimler Financial Services India, launched last July, will offer financing and insurance products for dealers and their customers in order to support sales of BharatBenz vehicles.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, which is based in Stuttgart, Germany. BharatBenz, an entirely new brand for the Indian market, is the fifth truck brand from Daimler's commercial vehicle division. Existing brands are Mercedes-Benz and Fuso in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, and Freightliner and Western Star, primarily in North America.

DICV's products will be customized to serve all major customer segments, ranging from owner-drivers to large fleet operators. The company, which currently has 1,200 employees, also handles marketing, sales, and aftersales of Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks in India.