HYDERABAD: Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Limited (DICV) is adding one more product line in the category of sub 9 tonne truck to its manufacturing facility in Chennai.
The first vehicle is expected to roll out during the third quarter of the calendar year, a top executive of the German truck maker said today.
Eric Nesselhauf, managing director and CEO of Daimler India said the new truck would cater to the export market and may be introduced in the Indian market at a later stage.
"We are adding a p roduct line to our Chennai plant. The truck would be 6.5 tonne to 8.6-tonne range under Fuso brand. Initially, the product will be exported. We might bring that here also later," Nesselhauf told reporters.
Replying to a query, he said currently the company exports its products to 30 countries and is planning to add 10 more during the year.
Betting big on the export market he said the new export-oriented product coupled with the expansion of international footprints will script the company's Indian growth story.
"We exported 4,300 units last year. We will see significant growth this year," he said while refusing the put number on the expected overall growth during the current year.
"We expect the exports and domestic sales would be 50:50 in the next three years," the truck maker said.
Last year DICV sold 13,100 units of BharatBenz trucks as against 13,997 units of 9 tonne to 49-tonne trucks in 2015 down 6.5 per cent.
He said demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in the last quarter of 2016 had impacted the truck sales to some extent.
Replying to a query, he said good exports figures last year had offset the subdued domestic sale.
DICV has a 72,000 units capacity plant at Oragadam near Chennai that makes trucks, buses and engines under three brands -- Bharatbenz, Fuso and Mercedes-Benz.
On the overall Indian truck industry, Nesselhauf said the market is of 200,000 units per annum and can go up to 500,000 units.
"This year also I expect the sales would be in the same 200,000 range. There will be some hick ups in sales due to GST implementation one or two months due to uncertainty," he said.
DICV today launched its heavy-duty truck range equipped with BS-IV emission norms in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh markets.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com