The Daimler truck plant at Oragadam near Chennai will be inaugurated today by the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, in the presence of the Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler, Dr Dieter Zetsche, the Member of Board of Management of Daimler AG, Mr Andreas Renschler, and the MD and CEO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Mr Marc Llistosella.
Daimler will shift its truck manufacturing operations from its Pune plant, which will now focus on cars, as part of its consolidation strategy. The Rs 4,400-crore plant at Oragadam will make light and heavy duty trucks in the 7 to 49 tonne range.
The 400-acre plant will start with production for the domestic market in the third quarter of 2012, followed by exports to the Asean and Africa.
The plant will produce 17-18 variants of the Bharat Benz brand of heavy and light duty trucks for use in construction, mining and on highways. The company will also shift production of the Actros range of heavy duty high-end trucks from its Pune facility.
The Oragadam plant has the capacity to produce 36,000 cabins, which can be expanded up to 71,000. The plant also has an engine assembly capacity of 24,000 engines for heavy duty vehicles. Engines for the light duty trucks will be sourced from Pitampur.
About 85 per cent of the parts will be sourced locally, mostly from suppliers in the Chennai region.