Scania to add three on-road trucks in Bangalore production line, may rope in more vendors

Scania Commercial Vehicles India will start assembling three models of on-road trucks at its Bangalore facility from this month onwards. Currently the company has been assembling the off-road mining P 410 8 x 4 truck at its integrated manufacturing facility in Narasapura industrial estate near Bangalore.

Talking to Autocar Professional, Anders Grundströmer, managing director of Scania Commercial Vehicles India (SCVI) and senior vice-president of Scania Group, said: “The company will start assembling three on-road trucks at its Narasapura facility starting October this year.”

SCVI’s plant has an annual production capacity to assemble 2,500 trucks. The three models that will go onto production will be the G 410 6x2, G 410 4x2 and G 460 6x4. While the first two are on-road vehicles for general usage, the third is a typical on-road vehicle for heavy pullers primarily used in the construction sector. The heavy duty Scania G460 6x4 puller truck is powered by a 460 hp engine will help the driver cruise with ODC (over-dimensional cargo) with ease and comfort. The 410 6x2 is a multi-tasking machine with 410 hp coupled with a liftable tag axle, tailor-made for long-haul transport, and offers efficiency through fuel savings and higher turnaround time.

For the existing P 410 8x4 mining truck, the company has been importing the chassis as Completely Knocked Down (CKD) kits and assembling them. While the truck body is sourced from the domestic manufacturer Hyva, the tyres come from MRF. In all, the existing truck in production gets parts from 12 vendors across the country.  

Grundströmer did not provide details about the ratio of foreign/domestic content on the three on-road trucks to be assembled at the Narasapura plant. However, it was understood that the company is likely to add some more vendors to ensure considerable local content in its to-be assembled on-road trucks, which are seeing good demand.

Since inception in October 2013, Scania has manufactured around 400 units of P 410 8 x4 and P 380 8x4 off-road trucks. Recently, the company has phased out the P 380 8x4 in India and is continuing production of only the P 410 8x4 off-road mining truck. Now with three more on-road trucks joining the production line, the Swedish CV major will totally manufacture four trucks (one off-road and three on-road).

The company claims its P 410 8x4 off-road tipper is popular in the Indian mining industry due to several additional features. It is equipped with two-pedal Opticruise, a fully automated gear-changing system for best fuel efficiency and ease of driving. It is also fitted with an 18.8 cubic meter rock body. These tippers were put to test by BGR Mining & Infra under stringent mining conditions recently and the vehicle recorded excellent uptime, reliability and outstanding mileage.