Mercedes Benz lays foundation of a new facility

Mercedes-Benz today began construction of its new facility for the body building of its City buses housed within their already existing Chakan Plant in Pune. The foundation stone of the new facility was laid by Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO of Mercedes-Benz India along with Mr. Piyush Arora (Director, Technical, Mercedes-Benz India) Mr. Srinivas Chilukuri, General Manager, Bus Sales Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India.

The infrastructure of the plant was created with a vision to address future expansion needs, underscoring the long-term growth plans of the company in India. Announcement of this new set-up comes up within a short time-span of announcing the foray into the city bus segment in June 2010. This new assembly line will cater to the production requirements of the city buses to start with. Start of production is expected around the second half of 2011.

Mercedes-Benz is the inventor of the first bus in the world and ever since, has pioneered innovations that have revolutionized motorized public transport. The engagement of Mercedes-Benz with India dates back to 1954 when they started collaboration for trucks. Mercedes-Benz introduced its two-axle luxury coaches in the last quarter of 2008 the Multi-axle coaches at the Auto Expo in 2010 in the Indian market. Both two axle and three axle buses have been utilized and well appreciated by both by private and government transport organizations who have been impressed with comfort safety, overall cost of operation and robustness of the products.

Dr. Wilfried Aulbur, Managing Director CEO, Mercedes-Benz India said that they would now like to expand into the city buses segment, making luxury travel affordable for public transport users of the urban population. The company is confident that this new facility will further consolidate its position in the commercial vehicle market by efficiently catering to our growing demand.

The market for high-end city buses is lucrative. It is estimated at approximately 500 units per annum and expected to grow by 20% each year. Mercedes-Benz India sees a potential in this niche market and as such plans to offer with solutions that are been successfully operated in similar operating conditions in other parts of the world. The company is presently conducting product clinics and fine tune the buses to the specific needs of Indian city bus operators. Mercedes-Benz has already imported a low floor and a semi-low floor city bus for the product clinic.

With improving infrastructure and growing urban vehicle population, the need for safe, reliable and robust mass transit system is imminent in India. Mercedes-Benz city buses with their superior quality, dynamic design, robust build, star comfort will be targeted to satisfy such needs of urban mobility.

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