Daimler, the largest manufacturer of medium- and heavy-duty trucks above 6 tonnes, unveiled its exclusive new brand of trucks for the Indian market. The brand, BharatBenz, will offer Indian customers an entire range of trucks from 6 to 49 tons across various applications. BharatBenz becomes the fifth brand in the Daimler Trucks global portfolio.
India’s macroeconomy has been on a growth track over the last years and is estimated to grow between seven and eight percent in the next ten years. Additionally, India has become the world’s second largest market for Medium- and Heavy-duty trucks. By 2020, we expect the Indian truck industry to double. We will play a significant role in this leap. For us, the most promising market is the “new middle market”, for which we will offer our new truck product portfolio. That’s why we’ll see a general upward-trend towards vehicles that will set new standards in terms of performance, quality reliability and efficiency. This market is expected to grow to as much as 80 percent of the Indian truck market until 2020
—Andreas Renschler, Head of Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses
The BharatBenz product range in the light-duty segment is based on the Fuso Canter platform, while the heavy-duty range is based on a Mercedes-Benz trucks platform, according to Marc Llistosella, Managing Director and CEO of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles.
Daimler said that the choice of the “Bharat” part of the name reinforces Daimler Trucks’ commitment to serving the local market. The translation of Bharat means “India” in the various national languages.
The company will roll out trucks in 2012 from its manufacturing facility at Oragadam, near Chennai.