Daimler to use Chennai truck plant as export hub

German automobile giant Daimler – owner of the luxury Mercedes Benz brand - is developing its Indian commercial vehicle operation as an export hub, the company said on Thursday evening.

Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), its truck and bus-making Indian subsidiary, will export locally assembled trucks from the conglomerate's Mitsubishi Fuso range in 15 markets in Asia and Africa, like Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mauritius and the Seychelles.

The first export market will be Sri Lanka in June 2013, followed by Bangladesh, Zambia, Kenya and Brunei later this year, the company said while launching the local production of its new range under the Fuso brand on at its Oragadam plant, near Chennai.

Albert Kirchmann, head, Daimler Trucks Asia and president and chief executive, Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp (MFTBC), said, "We are developing India as an export hub under our Asia strategy. Currently 19 plants across the world produce 175,000 Fuso trucks sold in 150 countries. The Oragadam plant along with the Kawasaki plant in Japan will be our two global competence centres."

Although the new lineup will be branded Mitsubishi Fuso in export markets, in India they will be badged Bharat Benz, Daimler's Indian brand. "There will be some product differences too - though they will be from the same platforms, the products will be market specific," said Kirchmann.

India's status as an export hub will also offer the opportunity for global sourcing of components. "We are working on it and India will become more important for parts supply globally as the first and second phase of localization kicks in," said Kirchmann.

Daimler has a range of global brands including Mitsubishi Fuso in its truck and bus stable. Kirchmann said there are no plans to introduce any of those brands in India. But he said the Actros truck will continue to be branded Mercedes Benz.

"It's a high horsepower , high payload, low volume , low localization niche product whereas our Bharat Benz range has 80-90 per cent local content and targets big volumes so that it can be badged differently," said Marc Llistosella, managing director and chief executive, DICV.

DICV's truck focus means it's not thinking buses right now. Nor will it even consider the newly introduced category of quadricycle. "Buses for now are not a part of our strategy as we are focussed on truck launches," said Llistosella . "As for quadricycles, that's not even something we're thinking about."