Mercedes-Benz India said it plans to make its Chakan plant near Pune the hub for buses in the coming years. The company is not only eyeing the Indian bus market with the Chakan plant but also the export markets. In a bid to meet the demand, Mercedes is setting up a bus body building facility at Chakan and is also looking at expanding its portfolio from just luxury coaches to city buses. It later hopes to enter the mid-priced bus segment as well. Speaking with FE, Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and chief executive officer, Mercedes-Benz India, said, ?We see great potential in India in terms of bus volumes and plan to make it our hub for buses.?
He indicated that the new bus body building facility at Chakan will initially look into city bus production and later think of entry into ?bus segments other than the ones it does with Sutlej Motors.? Currently, Sutlej does bus body building for Mercedes coaches in the country. At Chakan, Mercedes is setting up a bus body building facility with its Egyptian partner MCV. The facility will have an installed capacity of 700 units per annum, which is part of the Rs 300 crore investment plan for India. Mercedes will be launching its city buses in India in the second half of 2011.
The market for high-end city buses is estimated at approximately 500 units per annum and is expected to grow 20% each year. Currently, the Chakan plant produces Mercedes badge passenger cars and Actros trucks and will house production of city buses and passenger cars only. The production of Actros trucks will be slowly shifted to the upcoming plant of parent firm Daimler in Chennai.
The Chennai plant is expected to come up by 2012 under the company Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Ltd. (DICV) and will initially produce light, medium and heavy-duty commercial vehicles for the Indian volume market under a new brand name.
Asked on the company?s move to make bus bodies in-house and entry into new segments, Aulbur, said, ?It is too early for us to comment on this. Currently, we are present in the top-end coach segment. But we see opportunities in other segments as well.?
?Discussions are on with the management in Germany to chalk out our future strategy in the country. We want to have number of bus products from Chakan with the quality we want.? He reteirated that the partnership with Sutlej will continue and the company hopes to have strong in-house bus body building facility in addition to the Sutlej partnership.