Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has laid the foundation stone for its new bus plant at its existing factory site in Oragadam, near Chennai.
Wolfgang Bernhard, Daimler’s board member responsible for Daimler Trucks and Buses said: “On the basis of our strong truck business, we are now pressing ahead on the Indian bus market. For that purpose, we [will use] existing suppliers, our production site and our sales network.”
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The new plant, scheduled for completion in the second quarter of 2015, will manufacture and assemble Mercedes-Benz and BharatBenz branded buses. Oragadam will be the only Daimler plant worldwide that makes three brands of trucks and buses, plus engines, under one roof.
The buses will be offered in 9-tonne, 16t, and above-16t categories with both front or rear engine locations.
In partnership with the UK’s Wrightbus [which builds the new ‘Boris buses’ for London in Northern Ireland – ed] Daimler earmarked INR4.25bn (US$69.47m) for the bus project which will have initial capacity of 1,500 units, expanding to 4,000 units later if needed.
