Competition in premium buses good for India, says Volvo Buses president

Growing demand for comfortable inter-city transportation in India over the past five years has seen competition in the premium bus (costing upwards of Rs 80 lakh) market heat up. Largely catered to by multinational players like Volvo, Scania and Mercedes-Benz, the segment seems to be gaining traction after a sluggish couple of years.

Swedish manufacturer Volvo Buses, which has been present in India since CY2000, is a clear market leader with over 4,000 buses plying across the country. Volvo, which has its bus manufacturing plant at Hoskote near Bangalore, recently announced an investment of Rs 975 crore to enhance production capacity.   

More recently, Scania and Daimler Buses through their Indian manufacturing arms are looking to make their presence felt through localised manufacture and cost efficiencies.

Volvo nevertheless is taking the competition very seriously. Speaking to Autocar Professional on his recent India visit, Håkan Agnevall, president, Volvo Buses, said: “I think competition is good. It will drive us not to be complacent and help us continue to evolve and develop. Secondly, it’s good because it will further promote the whole concept of high-quality buses which we think is good from the overall Indian perspective.”

Before Volvo drove into India with its modern coaches, the Indian bus market was dominated by front-engined buses built on truck chassis. Volvo’s modern, air-conditioned, fully built, rear-engined coaches on a bus chassis helped transform the market and also gave the company a first-mover advantage.

Now, Volvo Buses has gone about achieving another first – its Made-in-India coaches are being exported to Europe which makes it the first company to do this. As it happens, export from India was part of Volvo Buses’ global game-plan. Agnevall says, “With our ‘Asia Leverage’ strategy which we have in place since 2011, we have had this ambition to export from India. Now we are mature enough and have a production system with which we feel it’s feasible to use India as an export hub for Europe. I think we have the right competence in India. These are not just products which have been developed solely in India, these are global products with substantial engineering in Europe and India and the project has been driven from India. It’s a global design but manufactured in India. Leveraging our Indian footprint brings us a very competitive solution.”

SCANIA AND MERCEDES UP THE ANTE
Meanwhile, since early 2013, another Swedish bus maker – Scania – has also been in the fray with its all-new Scania Metrolink range of 12-, 13.7- and 14.5-metre buses aimed at meeting the growing need for safer and comfortable travelling in India. While these buses were initially imported, the company has opened a new bus plant at Narasapura near Bangalore in March this year. The Rs 300 crore facility has an annual production capacity of 1,000 units. Scania has since then bagged orders from private operators in India and also started deliveries of Metrolink buses to State Transport Undertakings.

Recognising the potential of the premium bus market in India, Daimler Buses recently began manufacture of rear-engined buses under the Mercedes-Benz brand in Chennai. The company has invested Rs 424 crore at its Oragadam plant for the new bus manufacturing facility.

The company unveiled the first premium 15-metre bus in India in the coach segment on May this year, Markus Villinger, managing director, Daimler Buses India told Autocar Professional, “We will roll out the 15-metre Mercedes-Benz coach for the inter-city segment in September 2015. The Mercedes-Benz range of buses would be equipped with Electronic Stability Program (ESP) and Electronic Braking System (EBS).

Notwithstanding the competition from foreign players, home-grown commercial vehicle major Tata Motors is also looking to grab a slice of this growing, low-volume but premium segment. The company has unveiled prototype of its Magna front-engine, twin-axle, luxury AC coach. The company says it will have several options at an affordable price for Indian luxury coach operators and plans to launch the bus soon.

TATA MOTORS READIES THE 12-METRE MAGNA 
Tata Marcopolo, a 51:49 JV between Tata Motors and Brazil-based Marcopolo, is all set to launch the Magna, a super deluxe fully-built bus aimed at taking on the buses from Volvo, Scania and Mercedes-Benz. The prototype was showcased earlier this year at the company’s plant in Dharwad, Karnataka.

The front engine, twin-axle luxury 44-seater AC coach will have several options at ‘an affordable price’ for Indian luxury coach operators who always look for cost-effective solutions.

The Magna is slated to go into production soon. In an earlier interaction with Autocar Professional, Benedito Andre Almeida Violante, chief operating officer of Tata Marcopolo, the company has also designed a sleeper coach on the same platform.

Violante said the buses will be manufactured for the domestic market as well as for export to the Middle East market. The Magna, which will be the flagship product from Tata Marcopolo in the Indian luxury bus market, will have more than 95 percent of local content and will meet all mandatory safety regulations.

While the luxury coach buses will be produced at the company’s Dharwad manufacturing facility in Karnataka, the chassis will be supplied by Tata’s Pune production plant

Giving a fillip to growth in the bus market is the government’s focus on developing infrastructure and the road network across the country which will serve to accelerate inter-city travel. Clearly, the premium bus market in India is in for considerable action. Stay tuned.