Daimler Aims to Sell 17 Truck Models in India by 2014

Daimler AG's new €700 million factory near Chennai, India, will begin making BharatBenz heavy-duty trucks in the third quarter of this year.

By 2014, Daimler aims to sell 17 commercial vehicle models in India based on the platforms that carry the Mercedes-Benz Axor and affiliate Mitsubishi Fuso's Canter.

To help meet its goal, Daimler plans to significantly increase its current R&D staff of 1,000 employees. The company has not indicated if it plans to build all 17 models at the new plant in Oragadam.

Daimler predicts that heavy-duty trucks, which now account for only 4% of India's truck market, will zoom to nearly 80% of truck sales by 2020 as transporters upgrade their antiquated fleets. CEO Dieter Zetsche declares that such growth makes the market crucial to Daimler's future success. "If you don't make it here," he says, "you won't make it at all."

The company, which announced the new truck plant in February 2011, confirms it intends nearly double the facility's initial annual capacity to 70,000 trucks at some point. Daimler will begin exporting some of the factory's output next year to other Asian markets and the Middle East.

The company says it will shift production of Mercedes-Benz Actros trucks, which are now made at a Mercedes car facility in Pune, to the new plant by September.