B'lore bus expo draws the finest

Despite feared withdrawals by key participants, all the major bus OEMs turned out in style at India’s first expo dedicated to buses held last fortnight. The Bangalore International Exhibition Centre played host to the finest from not only the largest manufacturers Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, but also the high-end champions Volvo and Mercedes-Benz, and mid-segment challenger Swaraj Mazda.

City buses were the prominent theme at the Volvo and Ashok Leyland stands, the former showing off a bright orange vehicle hot off its production line meant for the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation and the latter a bright blue model from Chinese manufacturer Beiqi Foton that it is in the process of localising for India.

Tata showed a range of vehicles including its Marcopolo city bus and Hispano coach, positioned between the ordinary buses built on truck chassis at the lower end and the Volvo and Mercedes-Benz vehicles at the top end of the market.

Akash Passey, MD of Volvo Buses India, told reporters on the opening day that the bulk of the market for big buses above 12 tonnes would shift to this midprice (Rs 40–50 lakh) segment in the next five years, in which period the entire market itself would grow from 33,000 (2007–8) to 73,000. He also announced the introduction of Volvo consultancy services in India, beginning with a project with the BMTC, Volvo’s largest customer for city buses to date with a fleet of over 300 of these vehicles. This will involve Volvo experts from Sweden and India working on projects with local agencies to design sustainable transport solutions customised for the respective cities’ specific transportation needs, and will not necessarily require the customers to buy Volvo buses, he said.

Volvo sees big prospects in this business as funds for bus purchases are made available to 63 cities under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). In fact, Passey said consultancy and other “soft” services like fleet management would account for half of Volvo Buses India’s revenues in five years.

Bosch showcased a wide variety of its powertrain and electrical and electronic products for commercial vehicles, notably a complete scalable CNG fuel injection system for Euro 4 through 6, and a new generation of compact starter motors that weigh less than half the traditional product but deliver higher torques, and a range of more efficient generators (alternators).

Also on display was a Bosch body control module (BCM), which can not only control all the body interior systems of a bus like the airconditioning and the digital instrumentation and entertainment systems, or load-dependent headlamp beam alignment to create a wealth of new features, but also interface with the ECU and chassis controllers to deliver unprecedented levels of vehicle safety and control. According to N G K Menon, vice-president for OE sales, BCMs with sophisticated features for the volume market will first be introduced on trucks in India, not passenger cars.