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MOTORINDIA
l
February 2012
57
MAN Force Trucks Pvt. Ltd.
(MFTPL) has established itself as a
maker of reliable and rugged trucks
in the extremely demanding truck
market by selling over 10,000 vehi-
cles in India and 20 other countries
across the globe.
At Auto Expo 2012 in Delhi, the
company unveiled its first offer-
ing in the bus segment, the ‘MAN
Airobus’, a 45-seater inter-city air-
conditioned coach. The bus comes
with full air suspension, powered
by a 220 hp, MAN D-0836, BS III-
compliant diesel engine. It is fitted
with a six-speed 6S-850 licensed
ZF gearbox, MAN heavy-duty front
axle and Meritor Hypoid rear axle.
The time taken for the develop-
ment of the bus was roughly two
years. The vehicle is based on an ex-
isting bus model in South Africa to
which changes were made to suit the
Indian market. After prototyping, a
lot of testing was done for two years,
covering two lakh km across Indian
roads. Now, the stage is set for the
start of production.
Both the chassis and the bus body
are locally produced in India. The
company has a pan-India service
network of more than 100 service
outlets which ensure easy availabil-
ity of parts. The company is confi-
dent that the total cost of ownership
will come down owing to the proven
quality of aggregates, low mainte-
nance costs, competitive spare parts
cost and localized production. The
company aims to provide the best
return on investment and hopes that
customers, owners and operators
will benefit alike with this product.
Mr. Stephen Holsmann, Manag-
ing Director, MFTPL, said at the
launch event: “The vehicle is very
special, the floor is absolute flat
which is very easy to maintain and
Auto expo 2012
From left, Mr. Sudhir Mehta, Managing Director, Dr. Abhay Firodia, Chairman, and Mr. Stephen
Holsmann, Managing Director, MFTPL