Ashok Leyland to touch 100,000 units by 2008

New Delhi, Oct 4 (UNI) Truck maker Ashok Leyland is undergoing a capacity expansion to touch 1,00,000 units from the present 77,000 units by 2008 and has earmarked Rs 500 crore for the purpose.

The flagship company of the Hinduja Group also plans to built green field plants to support the expansion regime.

''We are in the process of finalising the location and investment plans for our first plant. Several factors including support being offered by state governments would be considered before taking the final decision,'' Ashok Leyland Special Director (Marketing) Venkat Subramaniam told UNI at the launch of its medium duty cargo carrier 'Cargo 1611' here today.

The company is looking at the large commercial vehicle (LCV) segment and plans to launch newgen range of 40-plus-tonnes trucks by the end of the current fiscal.

Ashok Leyland will also launch a range 45-seater luxury buses 'Luxura' early next year, which it showcased during the Auto Expo in January this year.

Comet 1611, the first-ever medium duty vehicle in the Indian market, features a factory-built cab. The company claims that it offers 10 per cent saving on fuel costs as a result of the proven H series BSII 4-cylinder engine equipped with an optimised driveline that has ZF 5-speed synchromesh gearbox and hypoid rear axle.

Fitted with a four-cylinder engine, the Rs 8.65 lakh (excluding taxes) truck with fully-built body options is designed to meet the growing demand in rated payload segments such as containers, parcel, courier, white goods and tankers suitable for the emerging hub-and-spoke scenario in goods tranport across the country.

Mr Subramanian said that with markets moving towards the 'Hub and Spoke model', where bigger vehicles are used on highways up to the transhipment point and smaller payload carriers were useful thereon, Comet 1611 is ideal, especially with increased power-to-weight ratio.

''Comet 1611 is an attractive proposition to customers in the 10T to 10.5T payload band where the 10 KL tankers for a variety of liquid goods operate,'' said Mr Subramanian.

Retail chain expansion, boom in consumer goods sale, larger traffic in courier, parcel and logistics and growing pharma and petroleum industry needs would attract customers for the new model, he said.

While sales of the company in 2005-06 were 65,000 units across all categories, the company is working to touch the 75,000 units figure by the end of 2006-07.

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