Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) is confident it will enter a strong growth trajectory in India with the industry’s transition to new emission norms, heavy truck launches planned and export of new product family from its Chennai factory.
The truck and bus manufacturing arm of German auto major Daimler AG hopes to break even this year.
Though DICV reported 6.5 per cent drop in its domestic truck volumes to 13,081 units in 2016 (13,997 units in 2015), it was a decent performance in a calendar year that was marked by sales slow down due to uncertainties over GST and demonetisation, the company said.
“While the first half of 2016 was positive, the second half turned negative. But no new player produced 40,000 trucks in less than five years. We also expanded our reach to 130 sales and service points by the end of 2016,” said Eric Nesselhauf, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of DICV.
It will roll out new range of heavy duty trucks with the promise of more power and higher productivity from April. DICV also expects to gain significantly from the BS 4 norms and the mandatory AC feature in trucks that come into effect from April 1.
Booming exportsMeanwhile, DICV’s exports are booming and the Oragadam factory will start producing a new truck family, possibly from May, for exports. The new sub-9 tonne trucks under Fuso brand will be exported to Gulf markets. These light trucks are likely to hit Indian market once the company completes the localisation drive.