Mikael Benje takes over reins of Scania India from Anders Grundströmer

In order to drive the company’s next growth phase, Swedish commercial vehicle major Scania today announced changes in its top level management in India. Anders Grundströmer, managing director, Scania India and senior VP, Scania Group is moving back to the parent organisation after heading the company’s operations in the country over the last three years. His shoes will be filled by the head of Scania’s representative office in Indonesia, Mikael Benje.

Additionally, Stefan Palskog has joined as President, Scania India. The company announced the new appointments at a multi-stakeholder conference on sustainability organized in Delhi today, where it also unveiled an industry whitepaper on ‘Increasing the adoption of bio-fuels for vehicle use in India.’

The conference was attended by the union minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, who delivered the keynote address. At the event, Scania reiterated its support to the Indian Government’s vision of making sustainable transport solutions a reality. The whitepaper highlighted specific measures to help India create a sustainable transport system, secure energy independence, curb emissions dramatically and create new jobs. The whitepaper also outlined how India can transform its current account deficit to a surplus with this shift, while minimizing damage to our environment.

The company had introduced India’s first biofuel run Green Bus in 2014 and is in active discussions with numerous state transport undertakings to deploy more such environment friendly buses across the country. According to the company, it has witnessed sound business momentum in the Indian market and currently has 35% market share in the premium commercial vehicles segment.

Speaking on the occasion, Grundströmer said: “In order to make sustainable transport solutions a reality, it’s important for India to recognise the huge potential of biofuels and quickly design the right ecosystem. A multi-stakeholder approach is critical to fast track this vision. There is a need to set long-term targets and incentives for renewable fuels like ethanol, biogas and bio-diesel in the transport sector if an efficient introduction of bio-fuels is to be achieved.

Stefan Palskog, president, Scania India, said, “Scania has been the pioneer in manufacturing sustainable vehicles which offer the best Total Operating Economy (TOE), and vehicles with engines which run on biofuels such as biogas, bio-ethanol, and bio-diesel. Scania has one part of the solution. But to make India truly sustainable, there is a need for a collaborative framework that brings together the Government (policy makers, STUs) and the private sector (biofuel production, waste collection and processing, vehicle manufacturers, transport companies, amongst others).”

Scania vehicles are already compliant with Euro VI (equivalent of Bharat VI) norms, with all its vehicles having the capability to run on biofuels.

Mikael Benje, managing director, Business Unit, Scania India, said: “Scania has been synonymous with the idea of sustainability, driving the idea of ‘local waste to local fuel for local transport’. We recognize that biofuels are one of the most sustainable solutions to reduce harmful vehicular emissions and we will introduce more Green Buses across India this year to accelerate the pace of sustainable transportation in the country.”

The company also announced that it is looking at doubling its current production capacity to be able to produce 2,500 buses and 5,000 trucks per year over the next five years, while augmenting its employee base to 1,200.