Benz To Manufacture Low Floor City Buses In India

By vicky.in

Published: Monday, June 7, 2010, 11:48 [IST]

Mercedes Benz declared its entry into the intercity bus manufacturing during the early 2010 and it is now entering the intra-city bus commuting too.

Wilfried Aulbur, the MD of Daimler Group, India informed that there will be significant price difference between the long distance buses and low floored intra-city buses. He also said that pricing will be very competitive.

Volvo is the main rival for the Benz among the bus category, as Volvo has already established in providing AC buses in Indian cities.

Aulbur is expecting that Daimler (Benz) will log a double digit sales growth this year in the luxury buses category. Adding to this, he revealed the statistics that overall 43 luxury buses have been sold so far with two and three axles put together. The price of two axles bus is Rs. 72 lakhs and three axles bus is Rs. 92 lakhs.

Talking about the production capacity of the company's factory, Albur said, "On a single shift basis we can assemble 1,200 luxury bus chassis and engines, both imported, at our Pune plant. We expect the 1,000 units per annum market to grow 15-20 percent over the next 10 years"

Daimler Group claims 13% market share in the 250000 units per annum eighth tonne GVW(Gross Vehicle Weight) bus segment globally. India's Ashok Leyland stands next in the list.

Daimler is investing Rs. 200 crore in enhancing the infrastructure of dealers and service stations across India.