Daimler unveils Chennai facility, to storm market in September

Come September, the competition among commercial vehicles on the Indian roads will get tougher with  global truck major Daimler AG set to roll out its vehicles.

The company's Rs 4,400 crore state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Oragadam near Chennai was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Wednesday with the senior management team of Daimler AG in attendance.

The facility, spread over 400 acres, is one of the three Daimler truck plants worldwide that combines truck assembly and component production under one roof and will have an initial capacity of 36,000 vehicles which can be scaled up to 72,000 units.

Production will begin in June this year.



Offering a peek into the company's strategy Andreas Renschler, head of Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses, said the company would be targeting 'the modern domestic segment' which demands higher standards than most trucks that are there on Indian roads today.

Currently, this segment has a market share of 4 per cent but is expected to grow to 80 per cent by 2020.

Renschler also said the company's brand for India - BharatBenz - will stand for quality, reliability and fuel efficiency thus offering the best total cost of ownership though in terms of price the trucks would be "a single digit percentage point higher in terms of cost".

BharatBenz trucks, he added, had already been tested for 4.5 kilometres - equivalent to 100 times around the world. The company will launch up to 17 models in the 6 to 49 tonne segment by 2014.

Marc Llistosella, Managing Director and CEO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, said the products would be in the market from September, adding the company will be setting up 100 dealerships in the next 18 months and exports from the India will begin in 2013.

The trucks, to start with, will have a localisation of 85 per cent and would increase to 90 per cent by 2015.