German bus major Daimler Buses
has started to export bus chassis from India. Hartmut Schick, Head of Daimler
Buses, and Markus Villinger, Head of Daimler Buses India, came to the Egyptian capital
of Cairo to celebrate the delivery of the first bus chassis to the company’s
long-time business partner MCV. These are nine-ton bus chassis that MCV will
equip with bodies in Cairo. Starting immediately, the finished vehicles will be
sold as Mercedes-Benz-brand buses through MCV’s nationwide sales network. This
was stated in a press release issued by the company.
“The export of bus chassis
from India to Egypt is yet another demonstration of how we are successfully
exploiting our global presence,” said Hartmut Schick, Head of Daimler Buses, at
the festive handover of the chassis. “Our global production network allows us
to offer appropriate and competitive products for every market,” he added.
To this, Karim Ghabbour, the
founder and Managing Director of MCV said: “We’re convinced that the chassis
from India will ensure our buses’ high quality and at the same time expand our
product range with a high-performance vehicle that will be offered at
attractive terms.”
The OF 9t bus chassis with
front-mounted engines are manufactured at the Daimler India Commercial Vehicles
(DICV) plant in the Indian city of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, and
delivered from there to Egypt. The chassis are technologically similar to those
used in the medium-duty BharatBenz trucks, which also roll off the assembly
line in Chennai. As a result, Daimler was able to begin with exports before the
bus plant was completed at the Chennai site.
The chassis from India are
especially modified for use in buses. The chassis are competitive, high-quality
products, due to their high degree of localisation and their incorporation in
state-of-the-art production and logistics processes. This enables Daimler Buses
to offer vehicles in previously unexploited segments of the Egyptian bus
market. The company plans to include additional export markets in its sales
network at a later date.
Construction of bus plant progressing in Chennai
Meanwhile, construction of the
DICV bus plant is continuing at a rapid pace. Daimler is investing around €50
million (Rs 350.8 crore approx.) in the project launched in March 2014. The
company expects to begin producing Mercedes-Benz and BharatBenz buses at the
plant at the end of the second quarter. Spread across an area of 113,000 square
meters, the plant is being built within the existing premises of DICV. The
plant will have an installed capacity of 1,500 vehicles per year in the initial
phase, and can be expanded to 4,000 units subsequently. Once construction is
completed, the facility in Chennai will be the first Daimler plant worldwide to
produce trucks, buses, and engines for a total of three brands.