Finally to put all speculation to rest and to express its commitment to the Indian market, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) unveiled a test track of global standards within its upcoming facility on the outskirts of Chennai. This state-of-the-art test track which has come up in record time is the company’s first important step towards its strategy to develop, manufacture and launch trucks for the Indian volume market, beginning mid-2012.
DICV began construction of the test track in April 2009, and the prototype trucks developed for the Indian market are already being tested on these tracks. Construction of the upcoming plant is on schedule at a total investment of Rs. 4,400 crores over the next five years. The company will manufacture light, medium and heavy duty trucks at its 400-acre facility in Oragadam, near Chennai.
Mr. Marc Llistosella, CEO of DICV, said: “The Indian truck industry has been steadily progressing towards modern generation products in line with the requirements of the market. Keeping in mind the Indian customer’s need for high quality and reliable Trucks, we are confident that we will meet their expectations with our Best-in-Class products, offering low TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), high quality and superior value for money. Our new testing facility, a one-of-its-kind in South Asia is an important step towards ensuring this commitment”.
Mr. Aydogan Cakmaz, Vice President, Product Engineering, DICV, added: “This state-of the-art test track is a result of Indian engineering and German DNA. The construction of the test track with its various testing facilities is the result of extensive customer correlation studies and measurements, to simulate the reality of the Indian terrain. Our trucks will have to undergo a variety of tests to ensure high standards of overall product performance and delivery”.
This test track spread across 47 acres is the latest for Daimler Trucks. The other major tracks are located at Woerth in Germany and Kitsuregawa in Japan.
The 3-lane test track runs 1.55 km on the outer track, equipped with a noise pad and a jump section. The inner track runs 1.16 km and includes a bump track, pothole testing and articulation sections. The other facilities include a water trough, an inspection ramp and a control tower. More facilities such as gradeability and steering are being planned for implementation later. The test track has been designed to test the trucks at speeds of upto 90 km per hour in the super elevated curves.
The test track would operate as an independent profit centre, initially for the use of Daimler’s product testing, and later will be made available even to component vendors and non-core competitors for testing their products.
Out of the Rs. 4,400 crores of investment committed to the Indian market, a quarter of the investment, nearly Rs. 1,200 crores, has been committed to research and development of products for the Indian market. The test track is an effort to understand the requirements of the Indian market and its customers and develop a truck with Indian knowledge and expertise, says Mr. Llistosella. It’s not Daimler coming to India but India coming to Daimler.
Daimler is developing a complete range of trucks from 6 to 49 tonnes specifically suited to the Indian market. The company has developed the proto types and are already conducting extensive tests, both on the field and on test track. The company has adopted a very aggressive pricing strategy for the new products and hopes to launch the products at very competitive pricing vis-a-vis competition. “We want to be a mass market player and not just a niche player in the commercial vehicle segment”, said Mr. Llistosella.
He added that, to be competitive, the new range of trucks will have a high degree of localisation from day one. The trucks will be 85 per cent localised which includes the frames, axles, engines and all other major aggregates. Some critical components would be manufactured or assembled in house and most of the other components will be sourced from Indian suppliers or global suppliers who have established production facilities in India. The engines for the light and medium duty trucks will be contract manufactured and the ones for the heavy duty trucks will be manufactured at the DICV facility.
The Oragadam facility will also have a high quality painting and finishing line. Nearly 12 to 14 per cent of the manufacturing/assembly operations will be done in-house and the remaining will be sourced from established vendors.
Developing products for emerging markets is nothing new to Daimler. The company is a market leader in Indonesia, Middle East, South America, Brazil, Turkey and many other growing markets.
“We have put together a highly experienced team of people who have the experience of working in other global markets. We are used to heavily tough conditions and this is reflected in our team which is very global. We are in contact with customers, opinion makers and drivers. Some of our team members are also driving with Indian truckers in many parts of the country to understand the requirement. As the global leader for trucks, we have an obligation to raise the bar, to bring new standards to the industry, to set standards in safety regulations and in the process also remain profitable”, added Mr. Llistosella.
Currently DICV has a base of 400 employees, of both Indian and German talent. Production at the plant will be defined in a two-phase concept, to produce a maximum capacity of 70,000 units.
