Daimler hopes to sell 200 units of premium buses this year.

Daimler Buses India expects continued demand for its premium buses even as it upgraded its flagship product Mercedes-Benz 2441 Super High Deck automatic coach with features such as higher power, automatic transmission and improved fuel efficiency.

Annual demand for Super High Deck buses is around 600 units, while the company hopes to sell 200 units this year, said Thomas Fricke, Managing Director, Daimler Buses India, a unit of €4.4-billion Daimler Buses under the umbrella of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles.

In 2017, Daimler Buses sold 906 units as against 501 in previous year. This 80 per cent growth was despite a drop in total bus market. “We expect 80-100 per cent growth this year,” he told newspersons while launching the upgraded bus at Oragadam factory.

Fricke said Indian market is transitioning from low-cost, mass market, often built by smaller body builders, to premium or semi-premium segment supported by OEMs providing fully-built vehicles complying with bus body code and other standards.

However, this transition is dependent on legislation and faster implementation of regulations like bus body code and new emission norms. For example, AIS 140 (automotive industry standard regulation) is advanced.

If this is made mandatory, the market will change, he said.

With around 40,000 units sales per annum, India is the second largest bus market in the world after China, he said.

In 2002, the demand was around 20,000 units and till 2010 there was an average growth of 9 per cent. However, after that demand dropped due to general elections and last year due to demonetisation and Bharat IV transition.

There will be emission norm changes in 2020 from Bharat IV to Bharat VI.

However, the long-term demand is likely to be between 50,000 and 60,000 units, he said. On the upgraded bus, Fricke said it offers a high seating capacity of up to 59 push back seats and 14 cubic meters of luggage space and is lightest in its class.

HBL