BharatBenz (Daimler) Trucks spotted testing near Chennai

The Germans are invading big-time in all sectors of the Indian automobile industry. As part of that invasion, the German auto major Daimler’s commercial-vehicle division has set up its base at Oragadam near Chennai and is building up its manufacturing facility there. The company even unveiled a huge, first-of-its-kind oval test-track at Oragadam and launched its specific-for-India brand ‘BharatBenz’ along with its logo a few months back.

While the first model launch from BharatBenz is still a few months away, the trucks have started venturing out onto public roads for undergoing real-world testing. A couple of those trucks were spotted testing last weekend in the NH4 (Chennai-Bangalore Highway). There are fair chances that these are the clearest spy shots yet of the BharatBenz trucks in India. There was no doubt that these trucks belong to BharatBenz as design similarities with Mercedes-Benz’s international models were clearly visible.

Both the trucks were medium to heavy duty haulers and had two axles at the rear. Most of the design elements in both the trucks were similar except for some exceptions like the taillights and the rear crash guard. At first glance, you can immediately notice the solid build quality in the body of these trucks and everything looked fit enough to withstand abuse on our roads. Also impressive was the truck’s amazing stability in an emergency braking situation that was encountered. The price is expected to be on the higher side too.   

The front end of the trucks were partially camouflaged hiding most parts of the grille and the bumper with integrated headlights. The overall design bears strong resemblance to the other popular global models of Mercedes-Benz like the Actros. In one of the trucks, the slotted grille and positioning of the round BharatBenz logo can also be seen. The rear had nothing noteworthy except for the horizontal slotted taillights in one of them. No other details of these trucks like the name, the payload capacity and the power-train options have been officially released.