How Venkat Thimaraju Bridged Mines and Machines for Daimler

To an outsider, Venkat Thimaraju’s job description wouldn’t have included “mining evangelist.” But after months of crawling into iron ore pits to fine-tune shift patterns, that’s effectively what he became. The truck that emerged—Daimler’s Torqshift series models—bears the imprint of his persistence, a testament to what can happen when institutional boundaries yield to individual vision. 

The Birth of an Idea: "Issue selling" Fuels Innovation

The Torqshift AMT range, designed specifically for demanding mining applications, owes its existence to a management concept known as "issue selling" – an upward delegation process where an employee, convinced by a good idea, pushes it through management for approval and implementation.

In this instance, Venkat Thimaraju,  an engineer from the transmission team, who is in his early thirties although  lacked extensive full vehicle experience but possessed a crucial insight: an existing AMT transmission in the Daimler network could be integrated with their vehicle's electronic architecture. Despite the technical complexities,  Thimaraju's passion led him to build a concept vehicle and convince his German colleagues to undertake the initial calibration. 

 "He has personally been in all those mines doing the shift calibration," Pradeep Kumar Thimmaiyan, President & Chief Technology Officer, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles  highlighted, emphasizing Thimaraju’s  dedication to fine-tuning the system for India's diverse terrains.

"He (Thimaraju)  knows so many mines and how the terrain is",  Thimmaiyan added, before continuing that this  initial prototype was so impressive that it "was not looking like a prototype" to the management, quickly securing approval for further development.

Thimmaiyan spoke to Autocar Professional  on the sidelines of the launch of the company's launch of the all-new BharatBenz construction and mining range comprising their HX and Torqshift series models in Chennai on Wednesday. 

Thimaraju,  an alumni of Tagore Engineering college, boasts of  having  deftness in various traits including transmission and rotational component management, vehicle gearbox designing, functional safety engineering, program management, research & development.  Prior to Daimler, where he has been working for close to eight years, Thimaraju also has prior experience of working with NBC Bearings, NSK, NTN india, and NEI. 

Tailoring Technology for India's Diverse Mining Landscape

For the sake of context, India's mining sector presents a complex tapestry of operational conditions, demanding highly specialized vehicle solutions. DICV's new Torqshift AMT vehicles, the company management claimed, are specifically  designed to cater to this variety. While they do not target the extra deep mines (beyond 200-250 meters) that use 150-300 ton dumping machines, their focus is on the mid-mining and shallow mining segments (40-80 meters deep),  which constitute a significant 70-75% of the total mining business, particularly in coal and other mining  transportation.

Daimler's  development process involved extensive "shift strategy calibration" across various regions and mine types. This included coal mines in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Assam, and Nagpur.

They also studied marble mines in Rajasthan and iron ore mines in Goa and Karnataka, adjusting vehicle specifications like axle count (three-axle for marble/iron ore, four-axle for coal) and powertrain based on terrain and operational
demands.

The software, the brain that has gone inside, is fine-tuned to the Indian needs for mining and long-haul applications,ensuring optimal performance for diverse conditions rather than a "plain vanilla solution", the company executives 
emphasized further.

The Torqshift  AMT  aims to reduce driver effort by nearly 40% by automating gear shifts, freeing drivers from manually shifting up  gears. This not only enhances comfort but also significantly improves fuel efficiency and increases the life of 
aggregates by preventing damage from clutch misuse. The transmission, featuring the latest technology, boasts an incredibly fast shifting speed of less than 400 milliseconds, eliminating sluggishness during gradient climbs.

Customers have embraced this technology rapidly, with over 60% of sales in the mining segment shifting to AMT vehicles within a year, indicating a strong market acceptance that could soon see manual transmissions phased out in this sector, 
the company officials noted, while offering a glimpse into the industry trends.   

The success seen in mining is also expected to translate to the long-haul segment, where DICV has begun seeding AMT units. While acceptance has been slower than in mining, initial results are promising. The company projects that a long-haul truck with AMT could achieve 18,000 to 20,000 kilometers per month, significantly more than the 12,000-13,000 km of a manual transmission truck, all without additional driver fatigue. This shift could fundamentally transform the commercial vehicle sector, much like AMT's adoption in passenger cars.

The HX Range: Re-engineering for Construction Industry

Alongside the Torqshift, DICV is launching the HX range, comprising 28-ton and 35-ton vehicles, primarily for surface mining, quarrying, and logistics applications. The HX range is significant re-engineering  of existing construction vehicles, 
incorporating innovations and  changes by tapping into the customer's pain points. Key enhancements include much higher ground clearance, unitized bearings designed for longer performance, a completely redesigned suspension for both longer life in difficult terrain and improved driver comfort, stronger, redesigned axles, and a new heavy-duty transmission, among others.

These improvements translate into a superior product offering better Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), much higher productivity, and significantly longer life for customers. DICV asserts that the HX range delivers 10-15% higher
productivity due to increased payload capability and more trips within limited operational hours. 

Market Leadership and Growth Trajectory

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG, Germany, is a full-fledged commercial vehicle player in India with a brand dedicated to its home market: BharatBenz. DICV produces and sells trucks from 10 to 55 tons, as well as BharatBenz buses, Mercedes-Benz coaches, and bus chassis. DICV’s  manufacturing plant at Oragadam near Chennai spreads over 400 acres ) also produces Daimler Trucks’ brands of FUSO, Mercedes-Benz, and Freightliner. Products and parts are exported to more than 60 markets in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. DICV represents an overall investment of more than Rs 9,560 crores.

India's ambitious infrastructure development pipeline and its position as a major global player in mining have created a burgeoning demand for heavy-duty trucks. The construction and mining sectors, the backbone of this economic growth, are grueling environments that demand robust, reliable, and efficient vehicles.

This has turned the Indian market into a fierce battleground for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) of commercial vehicles, each vying for a dominant position. Apart from Daimler, other foreign players such as Volvo, Scania and homegrown giants such as Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, VECV are other significant players in the space.  India's mining and construction equipment sector is poised for significant growth, projected to expand from $16 billion to $45 billion by 2030.

Satyakam Arya, Managing Director and CEO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, said, "India's construction and mining sector continues to be one of our strongest business pillars, powering the next phase of national development. We're seeing a decisive shift as large contractors invest in owned assets for better control and long-term returns. Many fleets are 8-10 years old and reaching end-of-life, creating a major replacement cycle"

Daimler India enjoys a formidable position in the Indian commercial vehicle market for construction and mining sectors. In the mining segments where it operates (specifically mid-size overburden transportation), the company holds close to 50% market share. The market for regular automobile-type mining trucks is estimated at around 5,000 units annually. The construction segment remains DICV's largest, where they are a significant player across India. 

Rajiv Chaturvedi, President & Chief Business Officer, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, said, "Fleet operators increasingly demand maximum uptime and swift maintenance solutions"

"We're seeing strong demand for factory-fitted features—GPS, hill start assist and driver comfort amenities. Also, safety innovations like reverse cameras and driver state monitoring are becoming customer priorities.”

Future Horizons

While designed primarily for the Indian market, these HX and Torqshift series models  are also eyed for international expansion. Indonesia is currently being explored as a potential export market, following DICV's history of designing products for India first, with exports as the next step.

On the future fuels front, Daimler globally prioritizes electric and hydrogen as the ultimate path to carbon-neutral mobility, with development stages underway for both. For India's transition, they are also actively exploring LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) as an interim option. While specific launch timelines have not been   disclosed, the company maintains its philosophy of thorough development before market introduction.