Maintaining the momentum of its highly successful partnership with Nissan Motor Company, Ashok Leyland has unveiled its STILE, a stylish multi-purpose vehicle based on a contemporary award-winning platform. The new vehicle model follows the highly popular DOST as the second product offering from Ashok Leyland’s fast-growing light vehicle business and has been developed by the Ashok Leyland – Nissan Motor Company Joint Venture.
Addressing the press on the occasion, the Hinduja Group Chairman, Mr. Dheeraj G. Hinduja, said: “With the STILE, Ashok Leyland is entering a new vehicle segment and our confidence with the STILE stems from our confidence in the strength of our combined teams in Nissan and Ashok Leyland. From Ashok Leyland’s perspective STILE represents our growing product portfolio and advancing product sophistication to stay ahead of the expectations of our customers. I am confident that STILE will strike the right chord with the Indian customer just like DOST has so successfully done. This is a journey for Ashok Leyland to cover all customers with a product ranging from 1.5 tons to 49 tons. The year 2013 is very significant for us, with the success of DOST, a host of new product launches are to come in the next few months like BOSS, PARTNER and N-TRUCK. Our network of more than 100 dealers and vendors, who made DOST successful, will also make it happen with STILE.”
Referring to the Ashok Leyland-Nissan partnership, Mr. G.P. Hinduja, Co-Chairman, Hinduja Group, said: ‘Partnership for Growth’ is one of the five guiding principles of our Group. In this spirit, we are extremely happy with the way our association with Nissan has grown from strength to strength. Our shared vision and philosophies have found expression in both the products that we have engineered thus far – DOST and STILE. I wish both the Nissan and the Ashok Leyland teams the very best and I am certain that they have brought forth another winner.”
The STILE is set to hit the roads before the festival season from Nissan’s manufacturing facility at Oragadam, near Chennai. The LCV will offer the Indian customer a global level of performance and comfort. It has been specially developed to address various applications like 7-8 seat people transport in the urban and rural areas, hotel shuttles, taxi services, ambulances, panel vans, courier services, inter-city and intra-city travel.
‘STILISH’ features
The STILE was designed to represent the modern global styling trends. The monocoque body construction makes for lower weight, while for passengers it translates into car-like comfort, excellent ride quality and greater safety. The powerful and advanced Common Rail diesel engine, ‘DIET’ is tuned for low NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) and, especially for India, it is fuel efficient. The interiors are well designed with superior ergonomics. The low floor feature makes for easy entry and exit, while sliding doors on both sides allow for easy access in tight parking spaces. For the crowded roads in India, the STILE offers maximum interior space efficiency. The vehicle will be available in both diesel and CNG versions, with a wide choice of seating options of two and three rows.
Dr. V. Sumantran, Vice Chairman, Hinduja Automotive, observed: “Five-and-a-half years from the hand shake to forming a team, creating an organisation, creating a brand new engine, an extensive dealer network, Ashok Leyland went about creating a world class LCV network, the DOST, which garnered ‘The LCV of The Year Award’. A total of 50,000 units of this vehicle model are already on the Indian roads. This means a lot of hard work has gone into its development. Right from the outset, we were determined not to remain a one product/platform or niche player in the LCV space. Following the successful run of the DOST, we are now delighted to present our brand-new vehicle on an award-winning platform that reflects our continued focus on offering Japanese Technology and Quality at Indian Cost. With the STILE also in our portfolio, we are now better positioned to cater to a wider range of needs, and at the same time, address the growing expectations of the Indian consumer.”
Mr. Carlos Ghosn, CEO, Renault-Nissan, in his impressive address, said: “This collaboration has accelerated Ashok Leyland sales and increased Nissan’s economies of scale while providing customers with unique products specifically tailored to Indian preferences. Our partnership with Ashok Leyland is an obvious ‘win-win-win’ for both companies and the consumer. Our company Nissan Motor Corporation (NMC) sees India as an engine of global economic growth. With cooperative efforts from our JV partners and as a part of our business plans, NMC will be delivering 10 new models to India by 2016, covering all segments from hutch back to premium to CVs”.
NMC will be closely working with Ashok Leyland to deliver what LCV customers in India are looking for, i.e., high quality products that make lives easier, without having to compromise on values. Nissan and Ashok Leyland are combining their talents to deliver modern, accessible products with relevant technology to the market.
Strengthening capabilities
With a setback in the Indian economy and its impact on the commercial vehicle industry, CV manufacturers like Ashok Leyland have set their sights firmly on the future and are continuing to take serious measures to reinforce the product portfolio and market stands. As a result, the company has invested Rs. 304 crores in R&D last year which is 2.3 per cent of its total sales turnover. In order to augment its R&D capabilities and harness the potential available through its acquisitions in Europe, the company has established a technical center in Warwickshire, UK. With its Ras-Al-Khaimah facility in UAE, running at full capacity, catering to the Middle East and African bus markets, AL has hiked the annual production capacity at its Pantnagar plant from 40,000 vehicles to 50,000 vehicles. A new chassis assembly line has been recently opened at its Ennore unit which has already started showing results with improved standards in efficiency and product quality.
With the goal of attaining operational excellence, AL is focusing on short-term measures without losing track of its long-term targets of joining the top 10 club in trucks and the top five in buses at the global level. One half of the vision has already been accomplished with the company becoming the fourth largest bus manufacturer in the world.
With growing competition in both global and domestic markets, the main challenge facing AL would be to retain its current position. Anticipating bright prospects for new products in the future, it plans to launch the A-Truck model with Avia cabin in the ICV space in the coming months. Also, the modern Neptune engine developed in-house by AL has successfully completed field trials and is ready for deployment. The N-Truck with the next-gencab, DOST CNG (for the Delhi market to start with), the new passenger version of DOST and the 6-ton Partner are slated to hit the road this year.