Daimler achieves break even in Indian truck biz

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Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), a 100% subsidiary of Daimler AG, has achieved the break-even in its truck business just over six years after the market launch of BharatBenz.

Satyakam Arya, Managing Director & CEO, of DICV, said: “2018 was the best year in the history of our company and for BharatBenz – our focus on profitable growth continues to pay off.”

In the domestic market, the company recorded a strong growth of 35% with sales of 22,532 trucks in 2018, up from 16,717 units in 2017, surpassing the growth rate of 28% achieved in 2017.

This positive development was both due to the strength of the BharatBenz product portfolio that continues to resonate with the rising number of value-conscious customers, and to the expansion of the brand’s pan-Indian sales and service network, which grew from more than 130 to over 180 touchpoints in the course of the year.

With more than 22,500 truck sales in 2018, Arya said, “We further established India as the 5th largest individual market for Daimler Trucks worldwide, underlining the importance of DICV and BharatBenz for Daimler Trucks.”

DICV’s exports also increased in 2018 by 8% to 7,054 trucks from 6,553 units in 2017. The company now ships vehicles to 50 countries including to regions like Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia. Overall, more than 20,000 vehicles have been delivered since the start of DICV’s exports business in 2013.

Further the company achieved the milestone in production mark, crossing 1,00,000 units in 2018 at its manufacturing plant near Chennai, which is an integral part of the global production network of Daimler Trucks & Buses.

Underlining the hallmark reliability of BharatBenz products, the first BharatBenz customer entered the ‘kilometre millionaire’ club, having operated his BharatBenz truck on more than 10 lakh kilometres with the original, factory-installed powertrain.

Outlook

For the year 2019, Daimler India expects a continuous positive development both in its domestic and exports markets. With BharatBenz, he said focus areas include the full digitalization of the customer ecosystem, further expansion of the sales and service network, and products that provide even better value for the customer.

“Our full attention is on India’s transition to BS-VI in just over a year, and we are confident to add the next chapter to our success story. We are fully utilizing Daimler’s extensive global Euro 6 experience, and we combine this with our customer and market insight to create the best for Indian CV customers,” said Arya.

“In parallel, the third phase of our network expansion will double the number of our sales and service touchpoints in the next 2-3 years and take us even closer to our customers.”

In connection with the new axle load regulations, DICV is upgrading the entire domestic truck portfolio and will launch models and variants in a staggered approach.