Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) on Wednesday announced that the company has rolled out its first Bharat Stage VI (BS-VI) heavy-duty powertrain from its manufacturing facility at Oragadam near Chennai.
The production of BS VI-compliant heavy-duty powertrain commences well ahead of the government’s April 2020 deadline for registering pre-BS-VI vehicles.
DICV’s start of production comes not only before the government’s April 2020 BS-VI transition deadline, but also ahead of their own internal schedule, according to a statement.
“Daimler Trucks already has eight years of experience delivering over 14 lakh BS VI-equivalent vehicles to customers. It is, therefore, no surprise we are again leading the industry in the transition to cleaner-emission commercial vehicles,” said Satyakam Arya, MD and CEO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles.
In 2017, DICV joined a global partnership with Daimler entities in Brazil, Germany and the US with the goal of upgrading key components to BS-VI standards by January 2020. More than 16 lakh km of reliability testing conducted worldwide, including Germany, South Africa, Brazil and India for the BS-VI powertrain.
Production of OM 926 engines
Three months ahead of schedule, DICV is now beginning series production of its BS VI-compliant OM 926 engines and MD 2 box after treatment Systems in India. The engine will be offered with two power options (230 HP and 280HP).
DICV has invested about ₹500 crore in its BS-VI preparatory works, which include 2 million km of testing and development of new facilities and more than 1,000 new parts.
DICV has already planned to make its Oragadam manufacturing complex to be a hub for the export of BS-VI trucks and buses.