Daimler launches low-floor city bus for India
10 Mar 2012
Germany's Daimler AG, which owns the Mercedes Benz brand, clearly has aggressive plans for India. After announcing early this month that it plans to launch 17 new truck models from its new Chennai facility, the company on Friday launched a low-floor Mercedes Benz city bus.
The bus market is currently the second-largest after China and is expected to double by 2020, said Hartmut Schick, global head, Daimler Buses. India sold 46,000 buses of over 8 tonnes in 2011.
Schick said this will touch 80,000 units by 2020.
''Currently the Indian bus market is larger than Europe,'' Schick said. ''North America and Europe are not growing while growth is slowing in Latin America. In the category of buses above 8 tonnes, every fifth bus sold worldwide will be in India.''
The Mercedes Benz city bus carries a price tag of Rs90 lakh ex-showroom in Pune; which is about 50 per cent more than Tata Motors' buses in the same segment.
Mercedes Benz will compete with Volvo to get orders from city corporations.