The Hindu : Business : Daimler to foray into luxury buses, trucks

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 03, 2004

Business

Business

Daimler to foray into luxury buses, trucks

By Ramnath Subbu

MUMBAI. NOV 2. DaimlerChrysler India Pvt. Ltd. (DCI), marked its tenth anniversary in the Indian market on Monday with a presentation of its concept car, Mercedes-Benz F-500 Mind, in Pune. The car combines hybrid technologies of a V8 diesel engine and a 50 kW electric motor and also incorporates MHI (machine-human interface).

DCI now offers the S-Class, petrol and diesel versions of the C and E Class, the SL-500, SLK, Maybach and the M Class Offroader in India. In calendar 2003, DCI sold 1,581 cars clocking a turnover of Rs. 434 crores and a profit before tax of Rs. 34 crores. In the current calendar year, it plans to sell 1,750-1,800 cars and cross the 2,000 cars per annum mark in 2005.

Bharat Balasubramanian, Vice President, Mercedes Car Group, said there was no move to introduce smaller A to C Class cars in the Indian market. "Although these cars have been extremely successful in Europe, Mercedes in India is a premium brand and introducing smaller cars would in some way dilute the image.''

Earlier, there was a lag between the global product and Indian launches which has been now corrected.

The schedule for India had been upgraded and in fact, the new C-Class was introduced in India within four months of the global unveiling.

Aggressive plans

DCI has aggressive plans for its foray in the Indian commercial vehicle sector. The Actros Truck is to be launched in January 2005 with feasibility studies having been completed. Luxury buses will be introduced subsequently in the first quarter of 2005. These will herald the entry of 12-litre V-6 engines on Indian roads. The 400 HP trucks will have standard anti-lock braking systems (ABS) and `Teligent' gear shifts.

The Luxury buses would take on players such as Volvo and would be rolled out in March-April 2005. The bus bodies would be made by Sutlej in Jullunder and would be in the `Luxury Inter-city' range. DCI had still to decide whether it would have a 280 or 300 hp engine but the buses would be priced in the Rs. 55-60 lakhs range and the first buses would be introduced on the Pune-Nagpur areas. The product was expected to take on the proposed launches next year by Bajaj Tempo and Tata Daewoo. There was no proposal for indigenisation in the first two-three years.

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