The world’s largest truck maker Daimler will introduce a range of trucks in 6-49 tonnes category under a completely new brand for its proposed entry into India’s commercial vehicle market in 2012.
Daimler is investing Rs. 4,400 crore through its wholly-owned subsidiary — Daimler India Commercial Vehicles — for a new facility at Oragadam in Tamil Nadu and is planning to increase its headcount by over five-fold to 3,000 and open 20 dealerships in the next two years.
Globally, Daimler’s truck brands include Mercedes-Benz, Freightliner, Fuso, Western Star, and Detroit Diesel.
We expect Daimler to launch the Fuso brand in India and it compete with India’s number truck maker Tata followed by Eicher (VECV) in the 6-49 tonne category.
The company will roll out the vehicles from 15 platforms, coming from its group firm Mercedes and Mitsubishi Fuso’s stable. The 25 tonne and above vehicles would be on Benz platform, while 6-16 tonne products will be on Fuso platform and trial production will begin by early 2012.
The company is aiming to have localisation of over 80 per cent to make the products price competitive.
Source: ET
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