Leyland driven by Indian ingenuity

The Hinduja flagship Ashok Leyland’s latest launch of an indigenously-developed Intelligent Exhaust Gas Recirculation (iEGR) technology for BS4 vehicles is indicative of this even as the company has set its eye on moving up by two spots to be in the Global Top 10 league of CV players. 

The CV major is unruffled by the Supreme Court directive enforcing BS-IV emission norms. The company is now pegging its iEGR to be better than the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) technology. Vinod K Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, said “India is a value-conscious market. There is no point in bringing electronics-embedded technologies here. iEGR will prove to be hugely cost-effective, easy-to-operate and hassle-free to maintain.” The MD and his battalion, were attempting to highlight the muscle power of the company at its annual Global Conference 2017 at the Chennai Trade Centre. 

Asked about Daimler India Commercial Vehicle’s launch of SCR technology-built truck, Dasari said it is imperative to understand Indian road conditions. 

“Introducing a western technology in India, and positioning its superiority purely on basis of the number of years in operation might not work. The driving conditions 

here are different, and so are the operating conditions. Road, load and maintenance aspects also must be accounted for. So, you need to design keeping India in mind,” he said. 

Dasari lamented the acute deficit of trust on “intelligent” Indian technology. Such a technology is showcased, after meeting emission, fuel-efficiency and reliability parameters, he said, adding the SCR technology also added to the vehicle weight substantially (100 

kg) unlike the iEGR technology.  “We are the only domestic OEM to implement this technology  successfully for products above 130 HP,” he said, presenting the revenue and growth chart of five of its core businesses – Bus, Spare Parts, Defence, LCV and Power Solutions. 

Seeing its existing inventory of 10,664 BS3 vehicles as an “opportunity” to boost its after-market business, Dasari said “We will not push dealers. We only want to help them retail. All we have to do is to simply take out the BS3 engine out and replace with BS4.” The price of such engine-fitted vehicles were Rs 2 lakh with the after-market promising huge potential. It had already converted 250-plus vehicles from BS3 to iEGR-compliant BS4 vehicles. 

Stating that Ashok Leyland was ready with BS4 capabilities in 2010 itself, he said, it was the non-availability of fuel that remained an issue. Dasari claimed that Ashok Leyland conducted business on a 100 per cent cash and carry basis unlike the competition. Though the mandatory emission norms had no major financial impact on the company, the effort was a “pain,” which they hope to get over within three months.

Bagging contracts for mine-protected and bullet-proof vehicles from security agencies, Ashok Leyland is targeting three-fold business increase from its defence vertical, a top company official has said. The company will be investing around Rs 600 crore towards capital expenditure in setting up plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in India and Ivory Coast in West Africa.“We have recently won the tenders for the supply of mine-protected vehicles and bullet-proof vehicles. Currently, the revenue from defence business is around Rs 500 crore. We will grow our defence business three times,” said Vinod K Dasari, Managing Director. Dasari said work on the company’s plants in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana was expected to begin in a couple of months after the land was acquired. 

Dasari said the plan is to sell one vehicle overseas for every two vehicles sold in India and towards that new assembly plants were being set up in Ivory Coast and Kenya and expanding the facility at Ras Al Khaimah, in Dubai. The company is also developing a new platform/architecture for building modular vehicles. 

He said Ashok Leyland had 32 per cent market share in the commercial vehicles segment at the end of the last fiscal and is not chasing market share. Dasari said the company was has been turning away several state transport corporation business proposals as the returns were not good.