Daimler is the world's largest manufacturer of medium and heavy-duty trucks above six tonnes. Now, they're taking things a step further, in India at least. The company has launched a new brand - BharatBenz - that will have a whole range of trucks from 6 to 49 tonnes across various applications.
Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG & Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars; Andreas Renschler, Head of Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses; and Marc Llistosella, Managing Director and CEO of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, unveiled the BharatBenz brand at the production location in Oragadam, near Chennai, India.
“We are sending a clear message with our new truck brand: Daimler is at home in India. Our BharatBenz trucks are the right combination of Daimler’s DNA and India’s market know-how. These trucks will be developed and built in India, for India, and by specialist employees from India,” said Dr. Zetsche.
“India’s macroeconomy has been on a growth track over the last years and is estimated to grow between seven and eight percent in the next ten years. Additionally, India has become the world’s second largest market for Medium- and Heavy-duty trucks. By 2020, we expect the Indian truck industry to double. We will play a significant role in this leap. For us, the most promising market is the “new middle market”, for which we will offer our new truck product portfolio. That’s why we’ll see a general upward-trend towards vehicles that will set new standards in terms of performance, quality reliability and efficiency”. This market is expected to grow to as much as 80 percent of the Indian truck market until 2020”, Andreas Renschler explains.
“The BharatBenz product range will draw on Daimler Trucks’ entire range of technological expertise in order to best address the special needs of Indian customers. The product range in the Light-duty segment is based on the Fuso Canter tried-and-tested platform, while the heavy-duty range is based on one of our Mercedes-Benz trucks platform. With these platforms the trucks have been ideally tailored to the needs of our India’s customers”, Marc Llistosella adds.
The choice of the “Bharat” part of the name reinforces Daimler Trucks’ commitment to serving the local market.
Daimler AG, headquartered in Stuttgart, is commemorating 125 years of the automobile this year. The pioneering spirit of its founders set the world in motion, by creating the world’s first automobile. Having spearheaded a tradition of innovation, with many firsts to its credit, including the world’s first truck 115 years ago, the new exclusive Indian brand BharatBenz is yet another great achievement in Daimler’s quest for excellence.
The company will roll out trucks in 2012 from its manufacturing facility at Oragadam, near Chennai. Spread over about 160 hectares, the facility also houses a state of the art test track. Over one million kilometres of testing have already been achieved by the company. DICV has a total dedicated investment of over Rs 4400 crores (approximately €700 million).
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