Daimler forges ahead in India

In just 18 months, Daimler AG's wholly owned Indian subsidiary has sold an impressive 10,000 examples of its BharatBenz trucks

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) – Daimler AG’s wholly owned subsidiary in India – recently passed a major milestone, having sold 10,000 of its BharatBenz trucks within 18 month of the laying of the foundation stone for the DICV plant in Chennai.

According to DICV its sales grew by 67 per cent in the first quarter of 2014, with roughly 2200 units sold, while the month of March saw sales cross the 1000 unit mark for the first time.

The results come amid a fairly gloomy economic backdrop for trucks of six tonnes and over in India, where sales have fallen by 20 per cent. In the nine tonnes and over segment the fledgling operation now has market share of 5.3 per cent.

The Managing Director and CEO of DICV, Marc Llistosella, said the uptake of the BharatBenz brand was founded on trust.

“It is a tremendous success for us that we have already sold 10,000 BharatBenz trucks within just 18 months,” he said.

“Despite a challenging market environment, we rely on high-quality products and transparent pricing without any discount. This is how we have gained the trust of our customers in a quite apparent way.”

BharatBenz offers models from nine to 49 tonnes (GVM) and has produced Fuso models at its production facility since May 2013.

Daimler says that from the second quarter of 2015 it will also produce BharatBenz and Mercedes-Benz buses at the Chennai facility.

Daimler forges ahead in India

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