| To jointly build buses for Q1 2008 launch.
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| Daimler AG of Germany has taken a call option to buy 26 per cent in Jalandhar-based bus body builder Sutlej Motors.
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| The proposal was recently cleared by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).
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| The Indian company had signed an agreement with Daimler last year to jointly make fully-built buses from Daimler’s Chakan facility based in Pune.
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| Under the agreement, Daimler will produce and supply bus chassis and Sutlej Motors will attach the body.
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| Daimler India, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Daimler AG, will also handle sales and after-sales services of the coaches, which are expected to be launched in India in the first quarter of 2008.
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| SML, which started making bus bodies in 1965, is one of the country’s biggest coach manufacturers.
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Daimler is the world’s biggest bus manufacturer. Daimler India already makes chassis in the country.
A Daimler delegation from Germany headed by Wolfgang Diez, head of the Daimler buses and coaches business unit, visited India last year to assess the market.
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The German company expects the demand for high-end buses to grow as a result of India’s improving road network and the increasing need for efficient public transport systems.
Other companies that are working on developing luxury inter-city buses for Indian and global markets are Tatra Vectra, Asia Motor Works (AMW), Man-Force and Scania.
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