A significant rise in European badged, Indian built trucks and buses is re-fuelling the ongoing speculation that Daimler turn India to complement its Australian line up in the future.
Truck and Bus News first broke the news in Transport Trucking Australia issue 105 that Daimler could bring the Bharatbenz to Australia.
In the 2017 financial year, India’s truck exports have grown by 25 per cent to 43,719 units.
Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi Fuso, Freightliner and UD Trucks are being made locally for overseas buyers.
Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has already begun exporting Mercedes-Benz-badged trucks and buses to Southeast Asian markets.
DICV exports the India-made Mitsubishi Fuso range of trucks to 28 countries: In the second half of 2017, it will begin sales to Mexico of the Freightliner-branded giant trucks.
“DICV has been awarded significant responsibilities within Daimler’s’ global truck and bus businesses. With the launch of a third product line for exports in 2017 at DICV, we will enter the next stage in the strategic collaboration of DICV and Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks & Buses Corporation, under Daimler Trucks Asia,” according to Erich Nesselhauf, managing director of DICV.
“Export volumes will continue to account for a significant share of our production volumes. While we don’t disclose production figures, our 2016 sales of 13,100 (domestic) and 4,300 (exports) units would give an idea of the distribution between domestic sales and exports,” he added.
