MBSA unveils heavy-duty truck
The multifunctional vehicle will be assembled at its East London plant
East London car manufacturing company Mercedes-Benz, now owned by Daimler AG, unveiled their new multifunctional truck, the Arocs.
The new model currently built for distribution and construction is manufactured at the Daimler plant in Stuttgart Germany, although the heavy duty truck is also assembled at the East London plant.
The East London plant is known to be the home of the C-class, but it is also the home of the Fuso and recently launched Actros and with the Arocs, which fall under the MercedesBenz commercial vehicles, recently joining the production line at the local plant.
Daimler Trucks and Buses South Africa (DTBSA) chief executive Jasper Hafkamp says they have experienced a 4% growth on light duty trucks from 2017 to 2018, but have seen an incredible growth of 8.5% with the launch of the long-haul truck Actros in May last year.
“We have seen a massive growth rate of the Actros and we have taken a meaty chunk of 19.4% of the market share in January 2019 alone.
“While sales were a bit slow in the first six months, closer to the end we saw a massive increase having over 2,000 orders and a 23% conquest rate, meaning we have managed to tap into new customers,” he said.
Hafkamp said operating as a separate legal entity since January 1 2019, DTBSA continues to operate in the truck and buses market for their customers’ benefit by providing optimal experience, know-how and attractive premium products offered by Mercedes-Benz Trucks and Buses, Fuso and Freightliner (parts & services), and services through Fleetboard, Driver training (TruckTraining) as well as MercedesBenz Financial Services.
Head of Daimler Trucks and Buses, Maretha Gerber, says the Arocs was designed according to customer needs.
“We have launched the Arocs 3336K/36 Tipper Chassis and the Arocs 3236B/51 8x4 Mixer Chassis with one cab variant, the S-Cab ClassicSpace.
“The comfortable ClassicSpace S-Cab is designed fully for the needs and comfort of the driver in solo operation in short-haul applications. It is designed on the basis of state-ofthe-art ergonomic and safety criteria.”
Gerber said the cab also features the newly-developed seat concept with seats that have wider cushions. The functional colour concept of the interior design in flannel grey and beige enhances the feeling of wellbeing.
The new Arocs for Construction comes standard with a 1year/unlimited kilometre complete vehicle warranty and a 3year/250,000km/5,000 hours standard warranty on the powertrain.