Daimler to move Actros production to Oragadam facility

German-auto major Daimler AG will consolidate its truck manufacturing in India and would shift Actros (earth movers) manufacturing from the Pune facility to Oragadam near here, where its BharatBenz trucks will be manufactured.

The company said all the trucks/commercial vehicles would be manufactured at the Oragadam facility, which was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalaithaa on Wednesday.  The facility, which will attract investment of around Rs 4,400 crore, will have an initial capacity of 36,000 units, including 24,000 units for heavy duty trucks and 12,000 for light duty trucks under the brand BharatBenz.

The capacity is scalable to 70,000 units per annum, said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of management of Daimler AG/ Head of Mercedes-Benz cars. The facility is spread over in 400 acre.

 

“If you don’t make it here, you wont make it at all. Because a strong position in the global market requires a strong position in India and at Daimler, we always go for the leading position in our industry. That's why India will play an increasingly important in our business,” he said.

The facility can roll out one heavy duty vehicle every 11 minutes and one light duty vehicle in every 22 minutes. It will make light and heavy duty trucks in the 7 to 49 tonne range for both domestic and overseas markets including countries in Asean and Africa.

“Our priority is the domestic market. Once we address it, we will look at exports,” said Andres Renschler, member of the board of management of Daimler AG, Head of Daimler Trucks and Daimler Buses.

The first vehicle will be rolled out from this facility in September, he added. Vehicles from this facility will have 85 per cent localisation. Besides assembling, the facility will also have a power train facility to cater to heavy duty trucks, with a capacity of 24,000 engines. For light duty vehicles, the engines will be manufactured at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh.

A separate facility, within the Oragadam plant, will be created to manufacture Actros Trucks, which are high-end heavy duty trucks.

“From June onwards, Actros trucks would be assembled at a different line but within this complex,”  an official of Damiler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt Ltd  (DICV) told reporters.

According to the official, the logic behind this was to have all the truck manufacturing in one location while the cars will be rolled out of the Pune plant. DICV will also shift its (R&D) team to the plant site.