Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) on Monday unveiled its all-new range of BS-VI compliant BharatBenz vehicles, the prices of which will be announced later.
The new product portfolio, comprising over a dozen medium and heavy duty trucks and buses, is now available for pre-bookings and will be introduced in the market depending on the fuel availability in each region.
Top company officials said the range may be priced 10 to 15% more than BS-IV models as the material cost in the new models have been significantly higher. But the BS-VI products are 10% more fuel efficient than BS-IV units and the annual maintenance contracts of BS-VI models costs 6% less than the BS-IV models.
Satyakam Arya, MD and CEO, DICV, said, “BharatBenz’s new CV range offers Indian customers the solution they need for the future, setting new benchmarks for medium and heavy duty trucks with improved fuel efficiency, safety and connectivity.”
Daimler’s new generation of CVs are packed with industry-leading fuel efficiency, safety, comfort and reliability, the company said.
With the new generation of BharatBenz trucks, DICV has decided to move away from the traditional tonnage classification. Instead, it will focus on customising vehicles for use applications and targeting specific sectors such as e-commerce.
The company said its buses would come with the new electrical and electronic architecture ‘ETec’ that offers an advanced human interface, easy fault detection and next-generation electronics. The BharatBenz trucks and buses will be powered by OM926 engine and 4D34i. The key differentiator in technology will be the after-treatment systems used in the vehicles.
The company’s trucks come with a up to six-year standard warranty and industry-best extended warranty of up to eight8 years. The trucks 20% percent longerwill have service intervals up to 20 percent longer.
For complying with BS-VI norms, the company leveraged Daimler’s global network of technological expertise to quickly and efficiently localise proven Euro6 technologies for use in the Indian market.
With a ₹500-crore investment, DICV developed new facilities and over 1,000 new parts for BS-VI, all this while achieving localisation of above 80%, company officials said.
In addition to completing over 5.2 million kilometers of BS VI testing in India, DICV is also gearing up its after-sales network with learnings from other markets.
