Scania Commercial Vehicles India, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of trucks and buses, has decided to drive aggressively in India. After entering into India in 2011 by floating its Indian subsidiary, the European company has now laid the foundation stone for its forthcoming assembly plant at Hosakote, near Bangalore in Karnataka to assemble both trucks and buses in the completely knocked-down (CKD) format.
The new plant will be a CKD assembly unit for truck and bus chassis. Bodybuilding of city buses and coaches is also planned in this facility. It has been specially designed to be in line with global standards of the Scania group, said Henrik Fagrenius, managing director, Scania Commercial Vehicles India.
The ground-breaking ceremony signifies an important landmark for Scania in India and furthers the commitment of Scania to the country. The CKD plant will be constructed on an area of 35 acres. This facility will assemble trucks and buses for the Indian market and the first rollout is expected in early next year. Over the next one year, Scania plans to invest R250 crore in the new production facility. Scania will employ up to 800 people in this facility over the next five years.
“The ground-breaking ceremony signifies an important landmark for Scania in India. We aim to produce and sell 2,000 heavy trucks and 1,000 intercity buses and coaches per year within the next five years. With this new assembly unit near Bangalore, we are confident of meeting the requirements of our customers.” Fagrenius added.
Scania?s manufacturing facility is aimed to at further boosting the company?s sales and service activities in the country. This will bring in a greater variety of models and also shorten the delivery time for customers. Scania provides high service levels that provide high uptime and low operating cost for customers. Scania?s strategies for India are innovative, offering value through lower total cost of ownership for customers and will bring in the best products and services to the country.
In 2011, Scania established its Indian arm to boost its presence through sales to the on-road segment. In India, Scania is present through its partner Larsen & Toubro (L&T) since 2007. L&T has successfully established Scania?s trucks and services and has developed a close partnership with customers in the mining industry. L&T has distributed and is supporting more than 600 trucks working in various job sites across India. This relationship will continue, the company said.