Daimler inaugurates bus manufacturing plant in India

Will manufacture and assemble buses under the Mercedes-Benz and BharatBenz brands.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has inaugurated its bus manufacturing plant in Oragadam, Chennai. In a statement sent directly to IHS Automotive, the company says that the plant will manufacture and assemble buses under the Mercedes-Benz and BharatBenz brands. The plant's initial production capacity is 1,500 units per annum (upa) but can be increased to 4,000 upa subsequently. DICV has invested nearly INR4.25 billion (USD66.3 million) in the plant. "We will be exporting both the bus chassis and fully built buses from India. The chassis exported will be used for Mercedes Benz Buses. We have already exported 150 chassis to Egypt, we are negotiating with Indonesia, Africa, so there are lots of markets to cater to. For fully built buses we may look at Nigeria in Africa and some of the South East Asian Markets," said Hartmut Schick, head of Daimler Buses.