BharatBenz

In 2008, Daimler AG planned to enter the Indian market in a joint venture with Hero MotoCorp to build medium and heavy commercial vehicles. A joint venture named Daimler Hero Commercial Vehicles (DHCV) was formed under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in July 2008 with 60% holding of Daimler AG and 40% holding of Hero Group.

Daimler AG and Hero Group announced they dissolved the Daimler Hero Commercial Vehicles Ltd. joint venture on 15 April 2009 because of an economic downturn in India. Hero Group decided to focus on core operation and return the 40% stake in DHCV joint venture to Daimler AG. With 100% stake, Daimler AG renamed DHCV as Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV).

The launch of the Bharat Benz brand was announced on 17 February 2011 in Chennai by Daimler AG Chairman Dieter Zetsche and the first Bharat Benz truck was unveiled on 4 January 2012 at the Delhi Auto Expo. The decision to launch the brand was prompted by Daimler's determination to compete in the fast-growing Indian truck market against existing Indian brands such as Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors and Indian ventures of other leading global truck manufacturers like VE Commercial Vehicles (Volvo-Eicher Motors Joint Venture). The entire proposed truck line-up in the 9 to 49-tonne range was unveiled on 2 March 2012.

In early 2014 Bharat Benz launched the tractor trailer models and a construction model making itself a full range player in the segment above 9T category spanning across medium and heavy-duty truck segments.

In May 2015, Bharat Benz inaugurated its new bus manufacturing facility in Oragadam, Chennai and unveiled its second wave of products – BharatBenz and Mercedes-Benz buses as well as a new range of Bharat Benz trucks and Bharat Benz heavy-duty tractors.

DICV set up a manufacturing plant for the BharatBenz trucks in Oragadam, near Chennai in Tamil Nadu at an investment of over €700 million (₹44 billion). This is its biggest investment outside Europe. Construction area for plant is 400 acres, out of which 47 acres are dedicated to 3-lane 1.55 kilometer test track. Test track include a bump track, pothole testing and articulation sections, a water trough, an inspection ramp and a control tower. Initial production capacity at the plant was 36000 units per year for 2012 and was to be expanded to 70,000 units per year by the start of 2013 with an additional investment of ₹3.5 billion. Series production started in June 2012 with the 2523R truck; sales began in September 2012.

Currently, BharatBenz has over, 3500 employees including both Indian and German staff. Localization rate for BharatBenz truck is 85% with more than 450 local suppliers out of which 41 percent are based in Tamil Nadu and 44 percent are in rest of the country, with an aim to exceed 90%.

Daimler has test driven its trucks a distance of 4.5 million km in various conditions at its test track in Oragadam.

Research and development facility

DICV set up a research and development facility at Oragadam manufacturing plant with an initial investment of ₹12 billion.