Mercedes Benz India constructing dedicated Bus Body building Facility

Mercedes Benz Bus

It has been three months since Mercedes announced its entry into bus segment in India, It has already begun the construction of a dedicated bus building facility at Pune in partnership with Egypt-based MCV. It will have an installed capacity of 700 units per annum. Mercedes has already done its ground work on the business, some low floor and semi low floor bus were imported and put in a month long trial in Pune and Bangalore to take the customers feedback on the requirements. The first batch will roll out in second half of 2011.

Talking to media, Dr Aulbur said,

We would now like to expand into the city bus segment, making luxury travel affordable for public transport users of the urban population. We have partnered with MCV. I am confident that this new facility will enable us to further consolidate our position in the commercial vehicle market by efficiently catering to the growing demand

At present, MBI will focus on city and urban transport and later it will look into other segments. MBI already has a presence in intercity bus segment whose chassis is manufactured by the company and body is built by Jalandhar-based Sutlej Motors and this partnership will continue as per the company officials.

While the investment for the bus plant is around INR 300 crores, Daimler is also investing INR 4400 crore to set up a truck manufacturing plant in Chennai. According to Dr Albur, the the Pune plant will be focused on bus building while the Actros trucks will be manufactured in Chennai however he refused to promise on a timeline.

Mercedes-Benz India, also a part of the Daimler Group, was so far responsible for the overall business of the Actros. It sold 215 of these premium trucks in 2009-10, most of which were used for off-road operations.

Photo Courtesy: Lineli

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