Though it’s a relatively new entrant into the Indian bus market, Daimler Buses India, a unit of Daimler Buses under the umbrella of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), has been able to grow its bus volumes gradually. But Covid-19 has applied brakes on its growth as the pandemic has crippled the demand for buses in the country. Karl-Alexander Seidel, who took charge as Head of Daimler Buses India on May 1, spoke to BusinessLine about the recovery in the bus market and the company’s plans to drive volumes. Excerpts:

How has the recovery been in the bus segment after the lockdown?

The bus market has been affected severely by the pandemic. The total industry volume fell 95 per cent in August when compared with 2019. So, it’s almost no sales of buses as everybody continues to work from home. Since schools are also closed, there is no order from them. The market awaits recovery in the private transport segment. On the government side, there have been a few STU (State Transport Undertaking) orders in the past couple of months and we also participated in that.

What are some of your measures and initiatives to drive bus sales?

We are trying to tell prospective customers about the advantages and benefits of buying buses now. We are stepping up our marketing efforts to convey that purchase of BharatBenz buses will guarantee Covid-preventive measures. There is also a retro fitment package for Covid-free solutions. We are working on an offensive marketing campaign through BusConnect programme, meant for both passengers and operators. Passengers will be able to select routes, get tracking alerts and an entertainment option. Operators will get fleet summaries and dashboards with reports that will help improve fleet administration. For the current year, our objective is to spur sales, backed by Covid-free solutions marketing campaign, product enhancement to fill the gaps. We will also position the BharatBenz brand as a mobility solution provider to school and college segments, among others.

Are you planning new launches this year?

Yes, the market will see a product offensive from BharatBenz as we plan product portfolio enhancement. Over the next couple of months, we will come out with new chassis variants and products. We are present only a few segments now. We will come out with new products for different application areas and that will fill the gaps that we had for a long time.

How strong are you in the educational institution segment?

School and college segment accounts for about 30-40 per cent of our bus sales. While we are known for our safety features in this segment, BharatBenz brand is positioning itself as a mobility solution provider and we are working on enhancing safety and related features further in this segment. We are in talks with a couple of big universities in two different States for providing mobility solutions. We have currently no product ready for that but we will work on that based on the discussion and requirements.

How do you see the share of fully-built buses growing?

Regulations and changing needs of customers have been driving the sales of fully-built buses in India. It has been growing at 4-5 per cent annually. But it is just 8-10 per cent of the bus market as bus body build building industry is still a major segment. Though there are challenges for the bus-body builders in the country due to change in regulations and norms, they will continue to have a role to play. There are certain applications that cannot be offered by OEMs because of the customisation needs and here body builders could serve the needs. In Europe too, chassis business is still a big one as there are special customer requirements that are fulfilled by bodybuilders. There are about 2 lakh body builders in India and about 400 of them are ARAI-certified, which means these people can design and incorporate the requirements of new regulations. I think these 400 could develop themselves into a strong category for body building. Thus, I don't see chassis business completely diminishing. So, the share of factory-fitted buses will only grow gradually and may reach 30 per cent in the next 10 years.

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