Scania Commercial Vehicles India announced inauguration of their first manufacturing facility in the Indian market. Scania now a part of the Volkswagen Group plans to manufacture about 2,500 heavy haulage trucks and 1,000 inter-city buses and coaches annually.
The facility is located Narasapura, Karnataka and the Swedish commercial vehicle maker have invested Rs 250 crore for setting up the facility. Currently the localization is 18% for trucks and 100% for bus bodies. Scania will also employ over 800 people at this facility within five years.
Scania started production of trucks for mining and off-road in June by importing kits and will roll out buses from the first quarter of 2014.
The manufacturing facility will serve as company’s head office and centre for all commercial operations across the country which consists of final assembly of trucks with bodywork and building of complete coaches along with a service workshop and a central parts warehouse for timely service.
Scania current sells the P-Series, G-Series and R-Series trucks in India. The P410 is being assembled while the G460 and R500 are imported. The bus range includes Metro Link and the company has already bagged an order of 120 busses from Mumbai-based Siddhivinayak Travels.
With infrastructure being developed and increasing highways , Scania is seeing India as a volumes market in the future.
