Daimler AG has been active in the commercial vehicle business in India since the 1950s. However, it only started manufacturing in the country in 2012 through its subsidiary Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV). And since then there has been no looking back. The Dollar Business caught up with Erich Nesselhauf, MD & CEO, DICV, to know the secret to DICV's success.
TDB: Daimler has been in the Indian market since the 1950s. How has the journey been so far?
Erich Nesselhauf (EN): The 1950s marked our maiden entry into the Indian market. For an entire decade, we worked in cooperation with Tata Group to produce Mercedes-Benz trucks for the domestic market. Speaking about Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), our journey actually began in 2009 when the company was founded. By the way, India is also home to several other Daimler group companies, like Mercedes-Benz India headquartered in Pune, Mercedes-Benz Research & Development India headquartered in Bangalore, and Daimler Financial Services India headquartered in Chennai.
DICV had to overcome many challenges before opening a manufacturing plant and starting truck production in 2012. True to our vision to revolutionise the Indian commercial vehicle industry, we have achieved an unprecedented manufacturing scale. Earlier this year,we reached a major milestone with the 50,000th vehicle rolling off the line at our truck manufacturing plant.
TDB: Has Indian government been able to create a congenial environment for foreign automobile manufacturers?
EN: As far as Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (we have our home base in Tamil Nadu) is concerned, it will not be an exaggeration to say that the government support has been very encouraging – otherwise we would not have been able to complete the construction of our manufacturing plant in just two years, which is an excellent time for a greenfield project.
TDB: What kind of competition do you face from other manufacturers? And how do you plan to maintain your competitive edge going forward?
This story is from the December 2016 edition of The Dollar Business.
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This story is from the December 2016 edition of The Dollar Business.
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