Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV), the wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler Truck AG and the manufacturer of BharatBenz, has announced its entry into the pre-owned commercial vehicle market under a new brand ‘BharatBenz Certified’. This new business initiative will undertake the refurbishment and sale of pre-owned BharatBenz trucks to Indian customers who have been aspiring to own a BharatBenz fleet.
Over the last 10 years, BharatBenz has established itself as a highly reputed truck and bus brand that is ahead of the curve in engineering, safety, reliability, performance and total cost of ownership. DICV’s high standard of product engineering and quality make BharatBenz vehicles exceedingly durable for delivering more mileage and a longer lifecycle than what the Indian customers are accustomed to. This makes the proposition of pre-owned BharatBenz vehicles compelling for aspiring customers.
Rajaram K, President, BharatBenz Marketing, Sales and Customer Service, said “Our perpetual and thorough market research practice brought to our attention the aspiration of customers who would like to purchase pre-owned BharatBenz trucks. This need in the market gave birth to the idea of launching BharatBenz Certified – a company-steered pre-owned CV business initiative that will enable such customers to contact BharatBenz directly through our website or authorized dealerships, thereby eliminating the need of third-party mediators. BharatBenz Certified will also be the catalyst for first-hand BharatBenz customers to upgrade their fleet to new BharatBenz vehicles which in turn creates an opportunity for customers aspiring to own safe and reliable pre-owned BharatBenz vehicles that will be as good as new after they are refurbished and restored by BharatBenz Certified.”
BharatBenz Certified will undertake the refurbishment of pre-owned BharatBenz vehicles with a rigorous 125-point quality check that will lead to a thorough technical check, repair and restoration of the vehicles. A detailed pre-delivery inspection (PDI) will be completed on the vehicles before dispatch. All used BharatBenz vehicles repaired and restored to a near showroom condition by ‘BharatBenz Certified’ will come with a warranty of 6 months. Customers will have the option of going for a new Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) for their pre-owned BharatBenz trucks or even transfer the existing warranty and AMC from the previous owner.
While commercial trucks typically have a lifecycle of 5-6 years, BharatBenz trucks have proven that they can run tirelessly for millions of kilometers, only undergoing service at manufacturer-prescribed time intervals. This increases the lifespan of BharatBenz CVs way beyond 5-6 years which makes them a lucrative pre-owned proposition for customers who are keen to buy pre-owned BharatBenz vehicles, which, after being refurbished by BharatBenz Certified, would be as good as new with respect to reliability, performance, safety and total cost of ownership.
DICV also has a program called ‘BharatBenz Exchange’ that was launched with an objective to providing customers, who owned CVs made by other brands, to shift to BharatBenz. While BharatBenz Exchange has increased the sale of BharatBenz CVs in India since its launch in 2020, the newly introduced BharatBenz Certified complements BharatBenz Exchange in utilizing the longer lifecycle of BharatBenz CVs that customers can enjoy.
In the pilot phase, BharatBenz Certified will be available at Trident Trucking, Bengaluru and will be expanded quickly to all BharatBenz dealerships across the country.
