Swedish bus and truck maker Scania AB (owned by Volkswagen) is planning to make India one of its top 5 markets. The company will export buses and trucks from India to fully utilise the factory.
The Indian truck and bus market has been largely dominated by Tata Motors since the very beginning. But off late, brands like Bharat-Benz and Mahindra are selling well in some niche segments where heavy-duty trucks with cutting edge technology are required. Specialised fields such as mining need these trucks. Therefore, Scania is taking the Indian market seriously and has plans of making it one of its biggest markets in the coming years. It entered the Indian market in 2007 and has sold 800 trucks till date. Since the company follows the one product policy, it will make the same products in India that it does elsewhere.
In order to achieve its aim, Scania will soon start the commercial production of buses at its factory located near Bengaluru. This would help them compete with bus makers like Mercedes and Volvo who have dominated the luxury bus segment since years. Scania wants a piece of this slice and hence will price its products attractively. Three years ago, the company’s Indian subsidiary started working with just twelve people and now it has over 600 people working for it. They are hiring and training people in India for their global operations.
Scania is betting big on the growth in the mining sector in India especially after the clarity in policies by the Indian government. They believe they can increase their heavy-duty tipper sales by using this opportunity well. Indian economy has been growing at a fast pace and new industries are opening up in the country. If Scania markets its products well, it has the potential of roping in customers looking at premium commercial vehicles. The Indian plant can make 1200 buses and 3000 trucks annually and Scania plans to export vehicles to other countries so as to benefit from lower cost of production in India.
Source – EconomicTimes.com