Mercedes-Benz boards low-floor bus

Mercedes-Benz, which trails the luxury car battle with BMW, is trying to play catch-up in another segment where it is quite a Johnny-come-lately: low-floor buses.

The automaker got jacked when it did not get order for even a single bus in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) —- there are 7,000 odd buses to be bought under the scheme —- because it did not have a low-floor bus portfolio.

The luxury bus segment has already drawn in the likes of Ashok Leyand, Hispano Carrocera (a Spanish bus company acquired by Tata Motors) and Mahindra Navistar.

“The company is hopeful its bus segment business will revive and show good numbers and make a mark in the segment where Volvo is a dominant player,” said Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and CEO, Mercedez Benz India.

The company is in talks with state transport undertakings like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chennai, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Mumbai.

“We launched our luxury buses in early 2009 and since then we have sold only 25 buses to private operators but in 2010 we expect to have significant numbers as there is growing demand from both private operators as well as STUs,” Aulbur added.

While Merc is trying to up its play in the intercity transport, it is also testing low-floor buses for city transport.

“We could not participate in JNNURM this time since we did not have the product. But now we are investigating this area and hopefully if next time the government has something similar to JNNURM, we should be able to participate in that,” he said.
In the low-floor bus segment there are two players currently- Tata Motors (Marcopolo), which grabbed a major chunk and Ashok Leyland. Merc has a 15% market share in the luxury bus segment, while Volvo has only about 3%.