Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) has inaugurated its 300th BharatBenz sales and service touch-point in India. BharatBenz has also expanded its sales and service footprint in western India by adding 10 new BharatBenz touchpoints in partnership with Autobahn Trucking.
The 300th showroom in the all-India BharatBenz network is located at Loni, a strategic location on the Pune-Solapur highway. The other newly inaugurated touchpoints are in Sangli, Baramati, Goa, Solapur, Malegaon, Alephata, Talegaon, Indapur and Kudal. With the latest expansion of retail network, the average distance between two BharatBenz touchpoints in western Maharashtra stands reduced to 75km.
Earlier this year, BharatBenz and Autobahn expanded their reach in Maharashtra by inaugurating sales and service touchpoints in Chakan, Nashik and Satara. The partnership is committed to opening a total of 25 touch-points in the state by the end of 2022.
Rajaram Krishnamurthy, VP (Marketing, Sales & Customer Service) DICV said: “Western India has been a strong region for our sales and Maharashtra has always been a performing market for BharatBenz. Expanding our network footprint with 10 new touchpoints at strategic locations will help us further cater to the increasing demand for BharatBenz trucks and buses and provide a world-class customer experience in the region.”
Currently, BharatBenz has 26 touch-points in Maharashtra. Sales have exceeded 15,000 BharatBenz trucks and buses in the state since its inception. BharatBenz touch-points are located at intersections of major National Highways across the state of Maharashtra, including the likes of NH3, NH4, NH6 and NH66. These highways are the lifelines for goods movements in the country connecting North India to South and West India to East.
“With this expansion, we now have over 160 service bays active in Maharashtra that are capable of servicing 5000+ vehicles a month. By the end of 2022, we will have 25 fully operational Autobahn Trucking touchpoints in the state, thereby reducing the average distance between two BharatBenz touchpoints in western Maharashtra from 150 km to 75 km approximately. The expansion is planned to address the increasing demand for BharatBenz products in the region and to demonstrate DICV’s firm commitment to the Indian market and the ever increasing community of BharatBenz,” Rajaram added.
Mohamed Farzad, Managing Director, Autobahn Trucking said, “”In addition to our strong network in Kerala, we are proud to expand and partner with BharatBenz in Maharashtra. In the last 7 months, we have already added 13 new touchpoints across Maharashtra and will reach 25 touchpoints by the end of this year. With the new BharatBenz dealerships, customers can be assured of the best sales advice and state-of-the-art ‘Proserv’ after sales support. With 450-plus technicians onboard, we look to serve 30,000 vehicles per annum with 100 bays.”
“We are coming up with a state-of-the-art Regional Training Center (RTC) at Chakan to cater to the training needs of all west region DICV dealers. It will take care of advanced and expert training of all technicians. This RTC will be a miniature replica of the Integrated Training Center at DICV, Oragadam,” he added.
BharatBenz now has a total of 300 touch-points strategically covering the length and breadth of India along national highways of the Golden quadrilateral North-South and East-West Corridors. DICV says its “reach of customers on these highways is under 2.5 hours.”