German commercial vehicles major Mercedes-Benz India will begin trial run of low-floor luxury city buses to take on Volvo in the growing city-bus segment.
The trial run of the low floor fully built luxury city buses powered by cutting edge technology will begin within three days with Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad municipal corporation’s Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal.
Low-floor city buses are sold at a price of around Rs 65 lakh each and major players such as Volvo, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors are competing in this segment.
Two-three months trial run of the diesel bus would be conducted at each of the five-six cities in Rajasthan, Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana and Maharashtra to make the buses safe and suitable for Indian roads.
The commercial production of the 57-seat luxury city buses will begin at its Chakan plant in the third quarter of 2011 and there is a huge demand from both state transport undertakings as well as private travel agencies. I don't know whether our Kerala RTC will go for it. :-) :-)
ndustry sources estimated that it would carry a price tag of Rs 80-85 lakh. The 43-seat 2-axle and 57-seat 3-axle inter-city luxury coaches cost Rs 75 lakh and Rs 83 lakh each.
It has tied up with its global partner MCV Egypt SA that will set up MCV India which will be a captive vendor at its Chakan premises for complete body building of the city buses.
With 500 employees, the Chakan plant assembles around 10 buses every month. The company sold a total of 68 buses since its launch in 2008, including 43 buses in the last five months in 2010. The market for high-end luxury city buses is lucrative at 500-600 units per annum which is expected to grow by 20 per cent year-on-year.
This segment will be a major focus in India. So, let us hope our Kerala RTC will prefer these buses in future. (At least one, for the name sake :-) )
Source: Bus Fanning.com
Image Credits Goes To: Ian
The Benz buses seem to be very expensive. Let them compete with others and see how they are doing. This will give competetion and make TATA and Asok Leyland to improve.
ReplyDeleteHey sujith, its nice to see that this type of posts in ksrtcblog. I was about to tell u about this. Please include more posts like this. Also that busfanning.com, the link u provided is also good. I think its just started only. But the idea is good. Also the domain name is also good.
ReplyDeletebetter to scrap TATA and Asok Leyland,We should think the pollution they create dont tell it is an Indian Company, now it is time to adapt to good technology Come to bangalore and see the emission level of Volvo and Tata High Tech Bus
ReplyDeleteAfter VOLVO came, TATA have improved on their buses. With the coming of BENZ they will improve further. I expect to see some exciting products from TATA. This will also give them confidence to compete in other parts of the world. Indians will be able to enjoy world class buses in India. Good luck to TATA.
ReplyDeleteTATA MARCOPOLO city buses are verygood compared to leylands.I am a daily commuter in the BMTC busees
ReplyDeleteNot only TATA MARCOPOLO, TATA HISPANO are also good, and can compete with VOLVO and BENZ.
ReplyDelete