India will be host to German trucking giant Daimler’s only electric vehicle plant outside of Europe and Japan when it launches a locally-made electric light cargo truck in FY25.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), the wholly-owned arm of Daimler Truck AG, which sells medium and heavy trucks and buses under the brand Bharat Benz, said it will launch the next-generation eCanter in India in the next 6-12 months.
The vehicle will be brought to India from Japan in the form of kits and later assembled at the Chennai-based facility of DICV. Japan is the only manufacturing base for the eCanter whereas Europe serves as an assembly location.
The launch will also pave the way for Bharat Benz’s foray into the 3.5 to 7.5 tonne truck segment. The brand was absent from this segment, which is dominated by Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland.
The eCanter is sold in three variants with different drive ranges + 80km, 140km and 200km — to cater to varied buyer choices. VE Commercial Vehicles’ electric offering expected to be the only competition for the eCanter in India.
“We have had requests to bring the eCanter to India from companies who have been using it in other countries but have operations in India,” said Andreas Gorbach, board member, Daimler Truck, and head of Global Truck Technology.
The last-mile mini truck market is the first of the several segments within the CV segment to get electrified following demand from e-commerce companies like Flipkart and Amazon to go green in delivery. Many such companies placed purchase orders with Tata Motors for the electric Ace.
A local assembly of the product will allow DICV to price it at a lower rate in comparison to a fully imported product since customs duty on kits (CKD) is 25% while that in fully built CVs is 40%. Testing of the eCanter has been going on within the DICV plant for some time. The eCanter will also become the test bed for future electric products, said sources.
Daimler has sold more than 2,500 eCanters around the world — cumulatively clocking 8 million kms on the road after being first launched in 2017. The product is sold in markets including Singapore, the US, the UK, Hong Kong, West Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
The company’s senior management added that there is no decision on the product branding as yet. It nay not be called eCanter in India. The product is in its third iteration.
The decision to locally assemble the product in India mirrors the move by Mercedes-Benz India, which also assembles several of its products which are not assembled widely elsewhere across the world.
Mercedes-Benz, which is the market leader in the luxury car segment, assembles the Maybach, and the electric vehicle EQS 580 in India.
(The author was in Chennai at the invitation of DICV)
