India enters Daimler Trucks' club of Top 5 markets

Five years after it introduced its made-for-India BharatBenz trucks in the domestic market, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has crossed the sales milestone of 50,000 trucks. A 4928 TT tractor from the new BharatBenz heavy-duty range was presented to a customer in Hyderabad last week.

Speaking on the occasion, Erich Nesselhauf, MD and CEO, DICV, said: “Fifty thousand truck sales in less than five years – no other new market entrant in India has achieved this before. BharatBenz is today firmly established in the world’s toughest CV market and will continue to push the industry limits in terms of safety features, environmental friendliness and fuel economy.”

Rajaram Krishnamurthy, vice-president of sales and marketing, DICV, said, “We have seen a very positive growth momentum following the introduction of the new BS-IV standard trucks and aim to further capitalise on this. Customers understand our superior BS-IV solution based on proven SCR technology. They also appreciate the host of additional features that our new BharatBenz heavy-duty range offers.”

With the refresh of the medium-duty range in 2016 and the all-new heavy-duty range in 2017, BharatBenz updated its entire truck portfolio within a short span of time. BharatBenz products are sold and serviced through an all-Indian network of over 130 touchpoints including those in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

India grows as an export hub
Other than being a key growth market, India serves as an important export hub for DICV: 10,000 trucks have been exported from its state-of-the-art production plant at Oragadam near Chennai since the start of the vehicle exports in June 2013. In 2016, exports from India again doubled up to more than 4,000 units.

The Fuso and Mercedes-Benz vehicles for export are manufactured on the same production lines as the domestic BharatBenz portfolio. The trucks already get exported to more than 30 markets in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Within this year, this number will grow up to 40 markets on three continents, including Bahrain and markets in Africa and Latin America. All exported trucks are leading in terms of safety, reliability and efficiency and fulfil the diverse requirements of customers in the different target markets.

According to the company, export numbers have doubled for several years in a row and have built the ground for the next big step: The start of a new sub-9-tonne truck for markets in the Middle East in the third quarter this year.

With the market launch of the BharatBenz brand, Daimler says it had dared to take a bold step in the world’s toughest commercial vehicle market dominated by longstanding domestic brands like Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. The move has paid off – while India was not even part of the Top Ten markets for Daimler Trucks until 2014, it now ranks as fifth important market for Daimler Trucks worldwide – with 13,100 units sold in 2016.

The BharatBenz brand, first unveiled in February 2011, had its market launch in September 2012. Featuring a full-fledged product portfolio in the medium- and heavy-duty segments, the brand crossed the first major domestic sales milestone of 10,000 units in April 2014. With the update of the medium-duty range in 2016 and the all-new heavy-duty range in 2017, BharatBenz updated its entire truck portfolio within a short span of time.