For the first time we bring to our BA readers the spyshots of the Truck. Our friends at Any-thing-on-wheels caught the clearest spy shots of the BharatBenz truck undergoing real-world tests at NH4 (Chennai-Bangalore Highway). There was no doubt that these trucks belong to BharatBenz as design similarities with Mercedes-Benz’s international models were clearly visible. The Germans are invading big-time in all sectors of the Indian automobile industry, now into the Indian truck market.
The German automaker has officially unveiled a new truck brand that will build and sell heavy-duty vehicles from six to 49 tons. The BharatBenz vehicles are slated to be constructed at a Daimler facility in Oragadam just outside of the port city of Chennai. According to The Wall Street Journal, production is set to kick off in June of 2012, and the German automaker says the plant will at first be able to crank out around 36,000 units per year.
The front-end of the trucks was partially camouflaged hiding most parts of the grille and the bumper with integrated headlights. The overall design bears strong resemblance to the other popular global models of Mercedes-Benz like the Actros. In one of the trucks, the slotted grille and positioning of the round BharatBenz logo can also be seen. The rear had nothing noteworthy except for the horizontal slotted taillights in one of them. No other details of these trucks like the name, the payload capacity and the power-train options have been officially released.
Both the trucks were medium to heavy duty haulers and had two axles at the rear. Most of the design elements in both the trucks were similar except for some exceptions like the taillights and the rear crash guard. At first glance, you can immediately notice the solid build quality in the body of these trucks and everything looked fit enough to withstand abuse on our roads. Also impressive was the truck’s amazing stability in an emergency braking situation that was encountered. The price is expected to be on the higher side too.
Analysts are projecting that the Indian truck market is set to expand by more than double by 2012, and Daimler wants a slice of that pie for obvious reasons. The company says it wants to have a leadership position in the market, and BharatBenz is the key to those plans. Meanwhile, the newcomer will face stiff competition from Volvo AB, Man AG, Navistar International and the heaviest hitter of them all, Tata.
The boom in heavy equipment sales is due to the fact that India is planning to spend around $60 billion to completely rework the country’s highway infrastructure. Last year alone truck and bus sales leapt by 45 percent.
Also see – Daimler Launches BharatBenz
More spyshots of BharatBenz (Daimler) trucks –
Source – Any-thing-on-wheels
