Swedish truck maker, Scania is planning to expand its operations in India by building an assembly plant in Bangalore for manufacturing and selling heavy haulage trucks and luxury buses.
“We will set up a regional product centre at Bangalore for assembling heavy haulage trucks and city and inter-city luxury buses,” said Henrik Fagrenius, managing director, Scania Commercial Vehicles India. The company will hire 100 employees initially.
Henrik Fagrenius did not divulge how much the company will invest in the proposed unit, but said it will be operational by next year. “Within the next five years, we expect to be able to achieve annual sales of almost 2,000 trucks, 1,000 buses and 1,500 engines,” Martin Lundestedt, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing of Scania said.
Scania’s heavy trucks are available in the range of 220-730 horse power, but the company will decide the range of vehicles for Indian roads after the tests. Since 2007-08, the company has sold about 600 mining trucks in India.
Henrik Fagrenius said the company had not decided if L&T will continue to be its distribution partner for the heavy haulage trucks and luxury buses. “We have not closed any options on that. L&T will continue to play an important role in relation to Scania’s sales and service in the Indian construction equipment market. Our own presence in the country will also strengthen L&T’s position, since the company’s Scania customers will benefit from a larger range of models, shorter delivery times and higher service availability.”
Scania and L&T were selling minitruck in collaboration in India and the Swedish company will start testing its heavy haulage trucks and city & inter-city luxury buses in India from September onwards.
