Mercedes-Benz showcased the prototype of its 38 seater low floor city bus and announced their expansion plans in the city bus segment. The company plans to set-up a dedicated assembly line that will cater to the production requirements of the city buses as well as the already available 2-axle and 3-axle inter-city luxury coaches. Mercedes-Benz also indicated their plan to offer integrated body-building facility for the city buses at a new manufacturing facility at Pune.
The prototype will be sent to different cities to take a feedback from the urban consumer and Mercedes will fine tune the buses to meet the requirements. The trials will last for about 6 – 9 months and the first batch of buses will roll out late next year from their new plant. Demand for city buses is high and is estimated at approximately 500 units per annum and expected to grow by 20% each year. Dr. Aulbur, CEO, Mercedes Benz India, mentioned that it was Mercedes which invented the first bus in the world. Well, this is what it looked like in 1898, since then we have come a long way.
