Daimler India Showcases Their Range Of BS-VI Ready Trucks & Buses Ahead Of Launch In India Next Year

Daimler also confirmed that India will be the global hub for exporting their range of BS-VI compliant trucks and buses. The company had already achieved BS-VI compliance to their range of commercial vehicles back in July 2019.

The Truck and Bus manufacturing division of Germany's Daimler AG hopes that the BS-VI fuel will be made available from February next year, before the implementation of new emission norms. The company is currently manufacturing the commercial vehicles out of Oragadam plant in Chennai.

Satyakam Arya, Managing Director & CEO of DICV, said,

"While BS-VI fuel is available in the NCR (National Capital Region), the industry has requested the government and oil companies to ensure the availability of BS-VI fuel from February 2020 onwards instead of pushing it to April 1. The discussions are on."

The availability of the BS-VI fuel before the implementation of the new emission norms, will make for a smoother transition, Satyakam added. The deadline for new BS-VI emission norms are set to April 1, 2020.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has invested Rs 500 crores towards research and development in the country. The company will be testing the vehicles for 2 million kilometers, development of new facilities, and more than 1,000 new parts produced.

Satyakam also added that the Daimler's BS-VI compliant trucks will be superior in technology with improved fuel efficiency against its rivals in the market. The company will bring in its globally-proven Euro-VI technology to its vehicles, which is an emission standard equivalent to BS-VI emission norms in India.

BharatBenz also plans to locally produce, and assemble 80 per cent of its parts, to suit Indian road conditions. The company also confirms, the percentage of parts localization will be increased to over 90 per cent in the coming years.

Satyakam, also added, "Daimler's experience of already bringing 1.4 Million EURO VI trucks and buses on the roads means we are easily ready to transition our BharatBenz trucks and buses to BS-VI by the April 2020 deadline. With this head start, we will begin exporting India-built trucks by 2021/2022. The transition to BS-VI opens up more opportunities to export fully-built vehicles, engines and parts to countries like Mexico, Chile and Brazil that will soon migrate to similar emission norms. This further strengthens India's position as a global production network for Daimler Trucks and Buses."

Daimler has already sold 1.4 million Euro-VI trucks and buses across 40 countries. However, the company predicts the market conditions for BharatBenz trucks in India will be tricky for the next couple of years.

Thoughts About Daimler's Range Of BS-VI Ready Trucks And Buses

Many commercial vehicle manufacturers have made their range of vehicles BS-VI complaint. However, with the lack of BS-VI fuel availability the companies are delaying the launch of their commercial vehicles. In response to this, the petroleum manufacturers have confirmed that the updated fuel will be available as early as starting next year.

With the introduction of BS-VI compliant commercial vehicles, there will be a decrease in air pollution, as the heavy-duty vehicles are major contributors towards the pollution in India.