Photo: PTI

NEW EXPERIENCE: Wilfred G. Aulbur, Managing Director and CEO of Daimler Chrysler India, unveiling the Actros truck at the company's Chikhali plant near Pune on Friday.

PUNE: DaimlerChrysler India has forayed into the commercial vehicle market with the launch of Actros, a heavy duty special application truck, designed to cater to the high-tonnage segment.

"India is a promising market for us. We pioneered the luxury car segment in this country and now look forward to establish ourselves in this niche market,'' DaimlerChrysler, Managing Director and CEO, Wilfried Aulbur, said after launching the vehicle here on Friday.

"We will look at tapping the medium-heavy duty truck segment which has a size of 800 units annually,'' he said.

The commercial vehicle, launched with two variants (Actros 4040K and Actros 4840K), features a robust build with a 12-litre engine with delivery output of 400 hp (horse power) at an rpm (revolutions per minute) as low as 1800. These trucks would be completely built with imported chassis. The 4040K model would cost Rs. 55 lakh, while the 4840K would cost Rs. 65 lakh. The company would look at the mining geographies of the country as the potential market and had opened service centres in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. It would open other centres depending on the demand, said Mr. Aulbur.

India had a huge potential in the auto component sourcing market and there were many Indian players participating in the global procurement process done by DC group, he said.

DaimlerChrysler has a research and development centre in Bangalore now with a strength of 170 people.

The group globally spends an average of 15 million euro in R&D, while R&D in commercial vehicles alone stands at one billion euro annually. — PTI

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