Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), the latest entrant into the Indian commercial vehicle (CV) market, is set to achieve annual sales of over 10,000 units of its BharatBenz trucks for the first time in calendar year 2014.
DICV, Indian subsidiary of German truck major Daimler AG, registered a 62 per cent rise in its BharatBenz truck sales at 9,700 units during January-November 2014, when compared with 6,000 units a year ago.
The company launched five more models under the BharatBenz brand during the year. “The new, attractive product range of the young BharatBenz brand is now sold by a network of around 80 dealerships. The expansion of the sales network continues as planned. At the same time, the acceptance of the brand among Indian customers keeps growing,” according to a statement from Daimler AG.
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“Less than two years after the start of deliveries, BharatBenz has conquered third place in the market for heavy-duty trucks,” it added. DICV actually started selling its BharatBenz trucks in India from September 2012.
During the January-November 2014, the total volumes of medium and heavy truck segment in the country stood at 162,215 units as against 162,126 units, according to the statistics of SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers).
Though first quarter of 2014 saw a dip in volumes at 45,732 units when compared with 57,441 units in a year-ago period, the subsequent period saw gradual rise in volumes, on account of improving economic scenario and consequent improvement in truck fleet utilisation levels. So, April-November 2014 period saw a growth of 11 per cent at 116,483 units when compared with 104,685 units.
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However, these numbers don’t include DICV’s as the company doesn’t share its sales with SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers). Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland continued to dominate the M&HCV segment during the year.