When commercial vehicles sales in the domestic market has been hit by the slowdown in the economy, Mercedes Benz India, a relatively new player in the segment, has already sold more units between January to October than fiscal 2007.
"We have sold 200 trucks in the first ten months of this year, as against 150 units in 2007.", said Wilfried Aulbur, managing director and chief executive officer, Mercedes Benz India private limited.
It started selling the Mercedes Actros trucks assembled at its Pune facility from 2006, selling 56 units that year. Mercedes follows a January-December fiscal.
"Even if India grows at a conservative 6 to 7 per cent next fiscal, energy is going to remain as one of the key concerns and substantial investment can be expected in the coal and power sectors. Our trucks find prime usage in mining applications.", Aulbur said highlighting that the company was banking on the growing coal sector to drive its truck sales in 2009.
At a time when lack of financing oprtions have pushed truck sales to a slump, Mercedes CMD said that the company could secure financing for its customers.
Commenting on the rising cost of imports, Aulbur said that the Mercedes Actros had 25 per cent local content and the company was working on taking that up higher. He did not want to give out further details saying that this was a continous process.