Daimler India Commercial Vehicles
Pvt. Ltd. (DICV), along with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation, Japan
(MFTBC) rolled out its first Left-Hand Drive (LHD) Fuso trucks for the export
markets from its manufacturing facility in Oragadam.
The first heavy-duty truck - the Fuso
FJ (equivalent to a 2528C), will first be launched in markets like
Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt. In the mid-term these trucks will be rolled out in
further markets in Africa, Latin
America, and the Middle East.
A variant of the new DICV-made FUSO
LHD will be showcased at the upcoming IAA Hannover show in September 2014. DICV
is a 100pc wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler AG, Stuttgart, Germany while
MFTBC is a Daimler company, under Daimler Trucks Asia.
DICV-made Fuso trucks are already
exported to markets like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kenya, Zambia,
Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Brunei. The company has established Fuso distribution
and service network in all these countries. DICV will also start manufacturing
medium-duty Fuso LHD vehicles subsequently later this year to address the wider
market.
Daimler Trucks Asia expects to gain additional growth
momentum in the future markets on top of the current existing markets from its
new Asia Business Model introduced in 2013. The Asia Business Model is an
integral component of Daimler Trucks Global Excellence Program ‘DT#1 (Daimler
Trucks Number One)’ designed to secure Daimler Trucks leadership position in
the key growth markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America.
By leveraging its operational strengths in Kawasaki,
Japan (MFTBC), and Chennai, India (DICV), the new business model is targeted to
double its sales (MFTBC and DICV combined) to over 290,000 units by 2020, and
thus, as “Daimler Trucks in Asia” making a major contribution to Daimler Trucks
overall sales target of over 500,000 units sold in the year 2015 and more than
700,000 trucks in the year 2020.