The Hindu Business Line : New Mercedes models unveiled<br>DaimlerChrysler to roll out Actros trucks, luxury buses

LUXURY ON WHEELS: Dr Wilfried Aulbur (left), CEO & Managing Director, DaimlerChrysler India, and Dr Bharat Balasubramanian, Vice- President Engineering Technologies and Regulatory Affairs EP/Q, at the launch of M-Class vehicle of Mercedes-Benz in the Capital on Friday. - Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Feb. 24

DaimlerChrysler on Friday said it would launch its premium range of Actros trucks in India in the first half of this year, while also looking to introduce luxury buses at a later stage.

``The Actros range is likely to hit the markets within the first half of this year,'' DaimlerChrysler India MD and CEO, Mr Wilfried Aulbur, told reporters here after launching the latest edition of the Mercedes S-Class and M-Class.

He said the Actros range would be rolled out as completely-built units and would be used for off-road applications such as mining. ``We will introduce the four-axle tipper and are confident of a good market response,'' Mr Aulbur said.

Meanwhile, the new generation S-Class would be priced at Rs 72 lakh while the M-Class is priced at Rs 59 lakh. Both will be imported into the Indian market.

The company said it expected the market for luxury cars to grow in the coming years. ``We sold 2,019 units last year at a growth of about seven per cent and are confident for this year as well,'' Mr Aulbur said.

DaimlerChrysler also said that it was looking at upgrading its Indian research and development laboratory into an engineering centre to drive home benefits of lower costs and high technical expertise. The luxury carmaker, which has engineering centres mainly in Germany apart from a few smaller ones in the US, Japan and Czech Republic, is currently carrying out pilots to see whether the Indian unit could become an integral part of the high-end product engineering process.

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