Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture on track

Ashok Leyland and Nissan Motor Company have announced that their joint venture to manufacture and market a whole range of light commercial vehicles (LCVs) is proceeding on schedule and that the first set of three new products will start rolling out from mid-2011. Of these, two will be manufactured at Ashok Leyland’s facilities in Hosur, while the third will roll out of the production lines at the Nissan plant at Oragadam near Chennai.

Addressing the media in Chennai, Dr. Andy Palmer, Senior Vice-President, Nissan Motor Company and Chairman, Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles Ltd., said: “The JV is moving forward at full throttle now although we had been forced to slow down a bit during the recessionary phase last year. The Indian LCV segment has witnessed very robust growth over the past decade, and by joining our complementary forces we have created synergies to launch our products for this market on schedule – just three years after the formation of the JV.”

Dr. V. Sumantran, Executive Vice Chairman, Hinduja Automotive Ltd., and Chairman, Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrain Ltd., said: “Within this JV, we have endeavoured to utilize our learnings relative to customer and market needs and taking forward the best Indian traditions of Indian frugal enterprise. The JV benefits from blending these factors together with Nissan’s long heritage of top-class engineering and quality orientation. We have closely observed changes in market dynamics, the greater role for intra-city and last mile goods distribution and rapidly evolving customer expectations. We feel our products, born out of the JV’s cost conscious quality orientation, coupled with the substantial advancement of product technologies, will help us deliver very competitive value to our customers.”

The flagship offering from this stable will be the contemporary F24 platform that will feature trucks and buses in the 5-7.5 tonne GVW range. These vehicles will be powered by an efficient, proven 3-litre, 4-cylinder Common Rail Diesel engine which would be BS-III and BS-IV compliant. The partners have emphasized that they are on course with their plans, which in phase I would see production emerge from Hosur and Oragadam. They also expect to execute phase II in which they will set up a dedicated plant for the JV. The overall scale of the enterprise has seen no change and, in fact, both parent companies have been in discussion for potential future product extensions. The joint venture, Mr. Palmer said, had planned an initial capacity of 1.50 lakh units for LCVs.

The partners have also clarified that they will continue with their original plan of bringing their range of vehicles to the market leveraging the Ashok Leyland and Nissan brands through their respective dealer networks. Likewise, the JV continues to examine certain specific export markets, in addition to the Indian market.

The JV will offer Japanese quality products at Indian costs, added Mr. Sumantran.