Chennai, May 27: Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Stuttgart-based Daimler, today inaugurated a bus facility in Chennai, set up at an investment of Rs 425 crore.
The plant is spread across the existing 28-acre truck facility at Oragadam, near Chennai. The unit will manufacture 1,500 buses annually, which can be expanded to 4,000 units.
Buses with front engines for short-distance travel in the office, tourist and school segments will be made under the BharatBenz brand.
Premium buses for inter-city travel, under the Mercedes brand, will be assembled with engines and transmission from its Brazilian facility.
The buses will be sold as fully built units with Irish company Wrightbus building the aluminum coaches that will make the buses lighter and more fuel-efficient, Wolfgang Bernhard, member of the board of management at Daimler Trucks and Buses, told reporters at the launch of the plant today.
"The Indian plant could well emerge as a major manufacturing hub with exports to Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. Moreover, the Indian market for buses weighing over eight tonnes is expected to double by 2020, which means we are here at the right time," said Harmut Schick, head of Daimler Buses.
Daimler Buses India managing director Markus Villinger said the new bus facility would create 1,300 jobs in the state. At present, the Chennai plant employs about 3,000 people.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicles also introduced two heavy-duty tippers for the mining industry and a tractor (trailer) built at the Chennai unit.
"We already have over 20,000 BharatBenz trucks on the Indian roads with very satisfied customers. During the first quarter, we grew 14 per cent. With the mining industry looking up we are looking at Indian fleet operators in this sector replacing their European trucks with our models," said Marc Llistosella, head of Daimler Trucks Asia.
The rapid growth in the e-commerce industry will also increase the demand for trucks, Llistosella said.
Daimler ships trucks to 12 markets, including Indonesia, Kenya, Nepal and Tanzania.
