Indian sourced Fuso’s are still on the shopping list for Daimler Australia as it seeks to boost its Japanese brand Fuso’s place in the market according to Fuso Truck and Bus Australia’s director Justin Whitford.

Speaking at last week’s Fuso Canter update, Whitford told Truck and Bus News that the company was still looking closely at the Indian built trucks to fill particular niches that would suit, particularly in construction and road building and mining operations.

“We are studying all the opportunities carefully and taking things slowly,” said Whitford.

“If you were to ask me to tell you when it would happen my best estimate is it could be about two years, but that is an estimate and it may happen faster, we will just have to wait and see,” he said.

Whitford said that the quality of the trucks is high because like a lot of global automotive companies Daimler has a production quality system that meets a standard so that no matter which plant in the world produces them the quality is comparable.

Truck and Bus News and Transport & Trucking originally broke the story about Fuso’s potential to source trucks out of the Daimler plant in India back in 2015 when Richard Eyre first revealed the company was looking at the possibilities that the Bharat Benz factory could potentially offer.

“We are a cautious and considered company so we would never rush into anything so we are carefully studying the possibilities, the available specifications, pricing and other variables and if it all fits then we will proceed,” Whitford added.

“I have traveled to India a couple of times so far and  I have to say I am pretty impressed with what I have seen, but it has to fit and tick all the boxes for us to proceed,” he said.

“We are primarily focussed on selling Fusos sourced from Kawasaki in Japan but you have to consider all the options in any business and this may offer us an advantage in certain sectors,” he added.