Scania will roll out its made-in-India trucks and buses by 2013. Scania Commercial Vehicles India Private Ltd., the Indian entity, will set up a plant in the Narasapura Industrial Area near Bangalore which will serve as an assembly unit for truck and bus chassis during phase 1 of operations. Body building for city buses and coaches is likely to begin in the first half of 2014. Service workshops for trucks and buses will be part of this facility to be added later. Scania will employ up to 800 people in this facility over the next five years.
Scania had last year announced its plans for India and the growing importance of India for Scania at the global level. The investment in India is in line with this commitment towards this market.
Mr. Henrik Fagrenius, Managing Director, Scania Commercial Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., said: Scania Commercial Vehicles India is a very important company for Scania Global. India is one of our most important markets.
Scania envisages around 2,000 heavy haulage trucks and 1,000 inter-city buses and coaches to be rolled out from this plant within five years. Besides these vehicles, the company is also preparing to sell engines to its OEM customers. These engines are more compact, resulting in lesser fuel consumption and lower emissions.
This investment furthers Scania’s commitment to the Indian market, and this is the right moment for us. With the commercial vehicles segment likely to register a higher volume growth of 8-10 per cent this year, the outlook for the industry is very promising, he added.
Scania’s direct presence will further boost the company’s sales, service and greater variety of models sold. It provides high service levels that give high uptime and low operational cost to customers.
Scania’s strategies for India are innovative, offering value through lower total cost of ownership for customers and will bring in the best products and services. Its management foresees a number of benefits with establishing the new plant. This unit will enable us to shorten our lead times and enhance service levels to our customers. This will also go a long way in sourcing of components locally from India, said Mr. Fagrenius.
Commenting on Scania’s partnership with L&T, he said: Scania has been in the Indian market since 2007-08 together with L&T. They have been our partner in selling trucks for the mining and construction segments and have successfully established the Scania brand in the Indian market. We have sold over 600 trucks through them in the off-road segment since 2008. We will continue to strengthen our co-operation with L&T in the mining and construction segment.
Currently Scania’s offers an 8×4 mining trucks come with a 380 hp engine. The company is studying different customer applications for the on-road segment at present with keen interest on over-dimensional cargo (ODC) and heavy 6×4 pullers.