[NiInJa]

Originally Posted by R4m4kr15hn4n

Am not really well-versed in the field of commercial vehicles, so pardon me for asking a noob question. The CNBC news article said that Scania is shutting down bus body production, but will continue the bus and truck chassis production. Does that mean we may get a different company branded bus/truck with the chassis made by Scania? Or did I completely misunderstood the article? Can somebody please clarify?

As far as my knowledge goes, there are mainly two parts of 'building' a bus or a truck
1. The engine + chassis + basics
2. The coach (seats, TV etc)

You can buy only the chassis, and drive it wrapping a muffler around your head in a chilling wind-blast all over you sitting on something that can hardly be called a 'seat' (Yes, you must have seen these poor guys driving bare bones chassis on national highways) to the coach factory.

The second part can either be built by the manufacturer in-house or there are Coach building facilities across India (e.g ACGL or desi jugaad ones in Punjab, Delhi) These companies or workshops thrived mainly due to the rule before early 90s to promote jobs: Bus coaches were not allowed to be built by manufacturers like TATA (or something like that). That is the reason India did not have a proper Bus chassis earlier, all bus coaches were built on truck chassis. But it was relaxed later and the market opened up, so manufacturers like Tata too started building coaches with Marcopolo. We finally had a proper chassis designed specifically for buses with rear engines.

Obviously, the coaches that are built in-house are going to be much superior, but they also come at a cost. Scania is closing this particular shop I guess. They will continue manufacturing chassis and buyers can build a coach on top of it from some other companies.

As far as sleeper coaches are concerned, I think safety is one important aspect which restricts in-house building of such coaches. They dont have seat belts or anything as such.(I might be wrong on this one)

[volkman10]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

Ask anyone down south about their preferred means of inter city travel and a premium bus comes ahead of trains. What are these buses? It is either a Volvo or a Scania.

Just scanned through the net and here is the general view favouring Volvo's.

Better comfort, space, the feel, NVH levels, much lesser engine noise (when seated at the rear side), better air conditioning and it’s a Volvo after all.

Volvo has wider seats. The suspension is on the softer side though. Hence the ride quality is plush over broken roads. But when you reach highways you desire a stiffer suspension setup. Due to this the Volvo’s are bouncy

B11R Auto shift bus is the best bus with which you can travel in India.

Link

[A M]

The main reason here is mainly that the market in India for new buses is slowly moving towards Sleeper coaches rather than Semi Sleeper(Reclining Seats 2x2) configuration.

The biggest problem that I smell here, like any other VAG company, is lack of zeal to conquer a unique market. VAG should add these terms to their vocabulary - Humility and Respect; which a unique market like India demands and commands. They are behaving like an arrogant entrepreneur who has built something and expects the customer to buy it without even knowing what the customer wants. Learning, unlearning and relearning are all part and parcel of evolution and keeping pace with the market is the only way to make a business successful.

If Volvo has a first mover advantage, Scania can one-up Volvo by offering OEM sleeper buses. I'm sure fleet owners would be happy to offer business to Scania. India market is a fairly big pie and I'm sure two players can co-exist.

[ksameer1234]

Whatever new buses that I see on highway are mostly Scania. In fact, all new Shivneri buses appear to be exclusively Scania and only the old ones are Volvo. I am not sure why Scania is so pessimistic about the market. Yes, the demand is high today for sleeper buses but better roads will lead to quicker travel times which should see increase in semi-sleeper options. As on date, premium buses mean either Scania or Volvo. If Scania backs out, Volvo would be more than happy to cater to the demand.

[R4m4kr15hn4n]

Originally Posted by NiInJa

As far as my knowledge goes, there are mainly two parts of 'building' a bus or a truck
1. The engine + chassis + basics
2. The coach (seats, TV etc)

You can buy only the chassis, and drive it wrapping a muffler around your head in a chilling wind-blast all over you sitting on something that can hardly be called a 'seat' (Yes, you must have seen these poor guys driving bare bones chassis on national highways) to the coach factory.

Thanks for the clarification.

I have been travelling frequently by bus in the past 1 year and found many private travels adding a lot of Scania buses. Even KSRTC (Karnataka) has many Scania buses, in-fact, most of their new buses are from Scania only, including the bio-diesel buses. Wonder where are they not seeing the demand?

[treadmark]

Since many are having the same doubt just to reiterate, we will continue to see more Scania coaches as it would have been. Nothing will be a change except the coaches will be built by external bodybuilders like Prakash, AZAD, SUTLEJ etc.
Even when Volvo started their operation their coaches were made by AZAD and they started inhouse body plant later.

Cheers!

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Just scanned through the net and here is the general view favouring Volvo's.

That review comes as a bit of a surprise. Though I have done a lot more Volvo travel and only two trips on a Scania, I found it hard to tell the difference. I slept like a log in both. Then again, I sleep like a log even on those hard wooden plank bunks on a train. Noise definitely was not an issue on the Scania and it felt like I was thrown around less. I too happened sit directly above the rear axle and this was on legendary Kerala roads, where the roads are hardly ever straight and there is no concept of using brakes. These buses take quite a thrashing.

I digress. As GTO says, with the economy on the rise and reading Volvo Eicher's sales report, it is already looking positive. Volvo cashed in on it very early. Scania are still relatively new to the market. I am pretty sure they will resume full fledged bus body building.

[volkman10]

To summarize the Scania episode, (it appears to be a strategy to stop in- house manufacturing and outsource the bus bodies)

- Scania stops in-house bus body building operation at its plant in Narasapura manufacturing facility.

- States lack of demand for its premium buses and due to a piled up inventory the above action is taken

- However they will continue to produce bus chassis at the Narasapura facility-Bangalore

-The company will look to work with outsourced bus body manufacturers in India as it will be more efficient from a local market perspective

- As the premium market for buses would grow in the near future, they could resume the premium bus production

- Sales and after sales with maintenance on running and future fleet will continue as before

- 111 employees have been affected with this decision

- Truck business continues to do well

All our existing and future customers and fleets will continue to be supported as per their maintenance contracts, spare parts are in full availability and we are committed to ensure a strong service offer to existing and new customers

Given the current situation of stoppage of in-house bus bodies, the Swedish CV maker will, in most likelihood, source its bus bodies from the MG Group.

Source:

[centaur]

I think the thread title is too strong for the issue at hand. They have stopped the bus manufacturing because of their decision (based on sluggish sales) and not because of any problem as such. When I read the title, I thought they actually got into a problem like say an emission scandal or a tax evasion or something. Thread tittle should be reworded IMHO

[amrisharm]

I live in a Tier III city with a population of just over 1 million. And over the last 2-3 years I have seen that many bus operators of fake Volvos (i.e Tata and AL buses with Volvo pasted on them) are now being replaced by real Volvos. The standard of Indian citizens is rising and they are now willing to pay more for comfort. Also the inability of Indian railways to expand service seems to be helping in the popularity of long distance premium buses. So this news comes as a total surprise to me. I was under the impression that the ultra luxury bus market was growing at a healthy rate annually.

Ultimately I feel the parent company, VW, may be partially responsible for this. We have clearly seen how VW cars has struggled in the Indian market. Seems the struggle continues with Scania as well.

[SchumiFan]

'Evacay' who had a fleet almost solely from Scania stopped operations temporarily at the end of May. Reason I was told is that four buses had problems with engine (seizure) almost all at the same time. So they have sent the fleet to the manufacturer for fixing them. I was told that they would resume operations at the end of June and am hoping for the same as well.

Hopefully this news won't have a major effect on the existing operators since its the body building that has been stopped. There are new operators in the segment every other day and most start with a Volvo and Sleeper for their operations. Ex: Kerala Lines just started Bangalore - Chennai service and added a Sleeper in the recent weeks.

From where I stand, the business is profitable if one knows the tips and tricks of running the business.

[treadmark]

Originally Posted by SchumiFan

'Evacay' who had a fleet almost solely from Scania stopped operations temporarily at the end of May.

Nope, that's not the reason from what I know.
EVACAY Scania's were all leased from Chirag Travels like few other (Parveen. Hebron...). Now Chirag had got all their buses back and they themselves are venturing into new routes. Don't know the reason for this move though.

On the other hand EVACAY had placed an order for Mercedes Super High Deck buses and expected to be on the road in few weeks. In my opinion Mercedes on no avatar could provided the comfort of Volvo's and Scania's in India at least.

[GTO]

The bad news isn't stopping for Scania India.

Swedish bus maker Scania Commercial Vehicles India Private Ltd is facing cases of evasion of customs, excise and sales tax duties, taxes and penalties. The directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) and other government departments have reportedly calculated the evasion at Rs37.20 crore and levied a penalty of Rs 35.81 crore for a total liability of Rs 73.01 crore on the Volkswagen Group-owned company.

Scania, which operates Green Buses in the city, has appealed against the sanctions with the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal’s (CESTAT) Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore benches. All the appeals are pending.

DRI started the proceedings on the company in 2016 and 2017 for which Scania filed appeals in 2017 and 2018. Evasion of duty/taxes and penalty related to customs amounts to Rs54.98 crore, Rs6.56 crore of sales tax and Rs11.46 crore of excise.

As per sources from various departments and information available from the company’s former employees, the DRI has found Scania’s claim of running Narasapura plant and importing all materials for its buses as ‘completely knocked down’ (CKD) unit was wrong.

“The DRI found that the company’s units and manner of importing materials was actually ‘semi knocked down’ (SKD) unit. Duties and taxes are higher for SKD than CKD. Also, the company has given wrong and withheld information about importing fuels for the buses,” they said.

Source

[audioholic]

Passed in front of the Narasapura factory this morning on my way to work. There is a sort of gloom in this place compared to the bustle before and I heard from people in my village who worked there that they have been asked to move to other factories in the area. I really dont understand why would they do such a drastic move to shut down operations just after around 3 years of coming into the market. At least compared to the first stint of Mercedes buses Scania was received far better. Of course, Volvo is synonymous for luxury buses but it would take time for Scania to gather decent market share.

[volkman10]

Scania is back in news!

Scania to shut city’s green bus service in two months - India’s first and only eco-friendly ethanol-run bus project. (Nagpur)

Its operator SST Sustainable Transport Solutions, a fully owned subsidiary of Scania, served notice of termination of service on Thursday to Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).

the company would withdraw its ethanol-run buses and close down its depot from midnight of August 12

The Volkswagen-owned company has blamed non-fulfilment of contract obligations by the civic body for its decision to discontinue the 19-month-old project of running 55 ethanol-run and 25 bio-gas buses

ET