Scania plans 40 new bus and truck dealerships in India by 2020

Scania Commercial Vehicles India (SCVI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sweden-based commercial vehicle major Scania, is expanding its dealership network in India.

According to Anders Grundströmer, managing director, Scania India and senior vice-president, Scania Group, the company will expand its sales and service network in all parts of the country.

“Currently we have nine dealerships spread across nine states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and NCR. We are planning to have 50 dealerships across the country by 2020,” he told Autocar Professional on the sidelines of inaugurating its first dealership – Transpro Motors, in Karnataka on Wednesday.

Soon SCVI will set up its dealerships in Hubli and Mangalore in Karnataka, he added.

Apart from sales and service outlets in the cities, he said the company is also setting service stations at mining sites, where Scania sold hundreds of mining trucks through its partnership with Larsen and Toubro. At present, the company operates around 25 standalone service stations in various parts of the country, including mining sites.

Scania has a partnership with Larsen & Toubro to sell its off-road trucks, primarily in the mining and construction sector, while it sells its buses and on-road trucks through its dealerships across the country.

So far, Scania sold around 1,500 units of trucks in India including 150 on-road trucks. Grundströmer also said the company began manufacturing buses at its manufacturing facility near Bangalore three months ago. Already more than 20 buses manufactured in Bangalore plant has been supplied to its customers including Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation which will buy 35 Metrolink buses from Scania.

The company sold around 100 buses in India in the past two years and expects to sell 300 buses in the next 12 months, he added. Before commencing local manufacturing operations near Bangalore, Scania was importing the buses for the India market.

The company is also manufacturing both its on-road and off-road trucks at its manufacturing facility, which has an installed production capacity of 2,500 trucks and 1,000 buses per annum. Scania has invested around Rs 300 crore in its facility near Bangalore and aims to double its capacity to 5,000 trucks and 2,500 buses in the next five years.

Grundströmer also said the company is keen to promote eco-friendly transport system in India as it has technology for it. Its biogas-driven bus is running successfully on a trial basis in Nagpur. The ethanol driven vehicles will cut down almost 90 percent of CO2.

He is the opinion that the Indian government should promote ethanol-driven vehicles and not the electric-driven vehicles as they are indirectly involved in creating CO2. Compared to thermal plants which produce electricity through conventional polluting means, biogas has been produced by using waste.

Also read: Scania CV India expands dealer network in Karnataka