Today Daimler, one of the world's largest truck manufacturers of trucks above 6 tonnes, previewed the first BharatBenz truck, which is the result of the coming together of Indian engineering and German DNA.
Later on this year, BharatBenz will unveil its entire truck range that spans from the 6 tonne segment right up to the massive 49 tonners. The BharatBenz plant will also be inaugurated in April 2012.
The previewed Heavy Duty Truck is the first India-built product to roll out from the BharatBenz production line and is built on the Mercedes-Benz Axor platform. Two engine configurations will be offered and both are BS III compliant. The trucks to come in the future, namely the Medium and Light Duty models will be based on the Fuso Canter and Fighter platforms respectively. These trucks will offer high reliability, comparatively lower fuel consumption and competitive pricing.
These trucks have been developed in India specifically for the country's harsh operating conditions. To ensure that these vehicles can take on the Indian subcontinent, the trucks have already undergone 40 lakh kilometres of testing.
The trucks will be built at the new BharatBenz plant at Oragadam near Chennai which is spread over 400 acres. This plant will have the capacity of 36,000 units and can be pushed to produce 70,000 units a year if the need arises.
To bring costs down, localisation is a key factor. In this regard, BharatBenz has roped in more than 450 local suppliers that totally contribute to a localisation of a heady 85 per cent in the company's offerings. Targetted localisation is more than 90 per cent, however.
