Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) on Tuesday announced the roll-out of Euro-V emission norms compliant medium duty trucks (MDT) from its Oragadam facility.
The trucks “are priced at the same level as that of BS-IV vehicles. But the new vehicles emit 40% less nitrogen oxides (NOx) than BS-IV vehicles,” said Erich Nesselhauf, MD and CEO, Daimler India.
“These medium-duty trucks are targeted for intra-city transportation use.”
‘Eyeing No. 2 slot’
Highlighting that more than 55,000 BharatBenz trucks had been rolled out from the Oragadam facility in the last five years, Mr. Nesselhauf said the plan was to secure second place in heavy duty truck soon, before targeting the number one slot.
The company has exported more than 10,000 trucks since 2013 and it will serve 40 markets by the end 2017. Recently, it entered the Indonesian market, according to Mr. Nesselhauf.
Marc Llistosella, head of Daimler Trucks Asia said during the current year, they expect DICV to achieve significant growth with BharatBenz. “For the first time, the brand progressed into double-digit market share in recent months, based on strong momentum gained with the BS-IV transition. The next three to four months looks very promising.”
He also announced the Oragadam plant has started working on two shifts now owing to good demand. The increased production numbers also augur well for meeting the export demand. “We are targeting to capture 20% market share of low duty trucks by 2020,” he said.
Last week, DTA rolled out electric trucks (eCanter) in New York. Asked about the possibility of its roll out in India, Mr. Llistosella, said: “The infrastructure is not yet ready in India in terms of ecosystem and charging stations. Currently, there are no plans.”
