OREANDA-NEWS. The commercial vehicles division of Daimler AG has reached another milestone with the integrated “Asia Business Model”, which is an integral component of the Global Excellence Initiative “Daimler Trucks Number One”. The company will bundle the activities of the subsidiaries Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) headquartered in Kawasaki, Japan, and Daimler India Commercial Vehicles Pvt. Ltd. (DICV) headquartered in Chennai, India, under the umbrella of “Daimler Trucks Asia”. For Daimler Truck, this cooperation opens up the opportunity for significant growth in promising, emerging markets in Asia and Africa. In this regard, MFTBC and DICV have planned a sales target of 290,000 units sold until the year 2020.

The Asia business will thus make a significant contribution to Daimler Trucks? sales target of over 500,000 trucks in the year 2015 and 700,000 trucks in the year 2020.

The starting shot for the successful penetration into new growth markets in Asia and Africa was sounded at the unveiling of the new FUSO products in front of customers, dealers and media representatives at DICV?s production plant in Chennai on May, 23rd 2013 . “Daimler Trucks Asia” is starting immediate production of trucks of the BharatBenz and FUSO brands at the plant.

Strategic cooperation in areas like product development, production and procurement will enable “Daimler Trucks Asia” to use the strengths of both companies. Nevertheless, MFTBC and DICV will continue to operate as independent subsidiaries of Daimler AG.

According to Marc Llistosella, DICV Managing Director & CEO, “DICV pledged to offer reliable and economical BharatBenz trucks – and we have delivered on this promise. Our trucks are well received by our customers.” Llistosella continued, “That we will now also be making FUSO trucks in Chennai is clear proof of the demanding quality standard here, which applies equally throughout Daimler’s entire global production network.”

The DICV plant in Oragadam, Chennai, is starting immediate production of five new FUSO truck types. These include the medium-duty models “FA” and “FI” with a gross vehicle weight of 9 to 16 tons and the heavy-duty models “FJ”, “FO” and “FZ” with a gross vehicle weight of 25 to 49 tons. The FUSO truck portfolio produced in India will be sold exclusively in export markets in Asia and Africa.