By IANS
Kolkata : DaimlerChrysler India, a subsidiary of the German auto major and one of the first joint ventures in the industry in India, wants to start manufacturing commercial vehicles by the end of the year.
“A truck, christened Actros, is likely to come in the market before December this year. Presently, the commercial vehicle – likely to be priced around Rs.6 million – will be manufactured at the company’s rented facility at Pune,” managing director and CEO Wilfried Aulbur told reporters on the sidelines of a function to unveil the company’s Mercedes-Benz CL-Class series here Saturday.
He said the company would chip in over Rs.2.5 billion ($61.75 million) for setting up its state-of-the-art facility at Pune.
“By the middle of next year, we would like to introduce passenger vehicles which will cater to the niche segment. There’s an increasing demand for new-look modern buses in the Indian market and we are interested to be a player in this segment,” he said.
Presently, the rented facility centre of DaimlerChrysler has a capacity to assemble 4,000 units including luxury passenger cars.
The company’s new facility at Pune, which will come up by the end of this current year, would have the capacity to roll out 5,000 passenger cars in a single shift per year.
Aulbur said the company had already made a successful foray into the heavy-duty commercial vehicles segment last year and sold about 100 mining tippers since its entry.
DaimlerChrysler has 0.3 percent share in the passenger car segment in India.