Ashok Leyland, the only Indian exhibitor, showcased a new range of inter-city and intra-city buses for the Middle East, North Africa and CIS markets at Busworld Turkey 2012.
To address the burgeoning transportation needs of these markets, the company has locally tied up with Utikar for the development of 8-metre buses and with Katmerciler & Volkan, a special equipment manufacturer, to produce multi-utility vehicles such as garbage compactors, hook loaders and fire trucks. All these vehicles will be specially built on the proven Ashok Leyland chassis.
Commenting on the latest development, Mr. P.G. Nillson, Executive Director, International Operations, Ashok Leyland, said he was delighted with the company’s global expansion drive. “This is really a moment of pride for Ashok Leyland. We are entering Turkey for the long term and are happy to take initial steps to enter the European market. We have 11 partners all over the world making local bodies on our chassis and are proud to work with an excellent partner here, Utikar. We welcome more partners in Turkey both for bus body-building and building special structures on our truck chassis”.
Ashok Leyland will strongly leverage technology, manufacturing capabilities and skilled labor of its local partners and offer customers well-designed, best-in-class transportation solutions. Due its geostrategic importance, Turkey will become the company’s distribution base to reach markets like Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and the Middle East. These operations will complement bus supplies from the company’s manufacturing facility at Ras Al Khaimah. In addition, AVIA Ashok Leyland Motors very well represents the company in Europe by making and marketing the popular D-Line series of trucks.
The buses which were presented at the Turkey show are built on the 816 chassis which is eight metre long, fitted with a 160 hp engine. The engine is Euro 4 compatible and will soon be available in Euro 5 and Euro 6 versions.
Going forward, the company has plans to produce 6-metre, 7.8-metre and 11-metre bus chassis both for inter-city and intra-city applications and will also develop rear engine buses in partnership with Utikar. Apart from bus chassis, Ashok Leyland will also export truck 9 tonne, 16 tonne and 25 tonne chassis locally built in Turkey. The trucks will cater to the growing demand for municipal application vehicles. Ashok Leyland also plans to set up a branch office in Turkey to streamline operations there.
Mr. Nillson also gave an update on Ashok Leyland’s Optare project. The company plans to export Optare vehicles to Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany and a few other markets of Central Europe. The company has also entered the CIS market and is bullish on the prospects of becoming the biggest foreign bus exporter to CIS countries in the next few years.
Over the last decade Turkey has emerged an important commercial vehicle market in Europe with demand increasing for locally manufactured vehicles, thanks to the superior quality. Ashok Leyland is looking to capitalize on this growing demand and establish its presence in the potential market.
The company also presented the keys to the first customer of its newly launched buses and a fleet owner from Azerbaijan who placed an order for 200 buses – a truly confidence-boosting start to its sales.