Daimler India Commercial
Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. (DICV), the 100pc wholly-owned subsidiary of Daimler AG,
crossed the milestone of the 20,000th locally produced trucks from its plant at
Oragadam on December 18, 2014.
It’s been around two and a
half years since the start of production of the first BharatBenz heavy-duty
truck that this 20,000th locally produced truck, a BharatBenz 2523C tipper, has
rolled off the production lines at DICVs plant in Oragadam in the state of
Tamil Nadu. About half of these 20,000 trucks have been manufactured just
within 2014, highlighting the rapid growth that the production site has
recently experienced, said a company press release.
“By crossing the production
mark of 20,000 trucks, we achieved the next milestone of our DICV success
story”, stated Erich Nesselhauf, CEO and Managing Director, Daimler India
Commercial Vehicles. “We have transformed the Indian truck industry with our
modern trucks. That’s confirmed by our customers and proven by a high
acceptance in the market due to excellent quality of our products as well as
best Sales and After Sales experiences,” he added.
Sven Graeble, Head of Operations
and Manufacturing Engineering, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, added that
the “20,000 trucks made at the Oragadam plant according to our Daimler top
quality standards is something that our production team can rightly be proud
of”, added
The DICV plant in Oragadam
produces trucks and engines of the three brands BharatBenz, FUSO and
Mercedes-Benz. Since the start of production of heavy-duty trucks in June 2012,
DICV raised the production volume monthly. The product portfolio grew by
several variants of heavy-duty trucks followed by medium-duty trucks in the
last months. Along with the trucks presented in January 2014, three tractor
trailers and one truck for construction-mining purposes, BharatBenz now offers
vehicles in the range from 9t to 49t. In addition DICV assembles the
Mercedes-Benz Actros from CKD (completely knocked down) kits in Oragadam.
Since May 2013, DICV has also
added FUSO trucks to its production portfolio in Oragadam. They are determined
for the Asian and African growth markets; with Indonesia and Uganda being
recently launched. Under the umbrella of Daimler Trucks Asia, the company works
closely together with the Japanese subsidiary of Daimler, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck
and Bus Corporation (MFTBC).
Next to trucks, BharatBenz and
Mercedes-Benz Buses will roll off at the new bus manufacturing plant which is
constructed within the existing premises of DICV. The bus plant is spread
across an area of 27.91 acres and will be completed by the second quarter of
2015. An investment of Rs 425 Cr has
been earmarked for the bus project for an installed capacity of 1500 units in
the initial phase. The capacity can be further expanded to 4000 units
subsequently. The DICV plant will thus be the only Daimler Truck plant
worldwide, that manufactures three brands of trucks and buses under one roof.