Ashok Leyland, the flagship of the Hinduja Group, having a major presence in India’s commercial vehicles industry from over six decades, now caters to the supply of TS 16949 certified diesel engines for various application such as generating set application (DG sets), industrial application which includes earthmoving equipment, compressor, cranes, harvester combines, road construction machinery, etc. Mr. R. Rajesh, General Manager Power Solution Business briefs the product program and segment expectations.
Indicate the earthmoving segment focus areas & popular engine models supplied for the applications. What are the USPs, current market share and plans to increase the same in a competitive market?
Earthmoving segment focus areas are:
- Wheeled loaders · Compressors · Excavators · Paver finisher
- Compactors · Cranes · Concrete mixers / pumps
These are served by Ashok Leyland’s famous H series 4 & 6 cylinder engines.
Ashok Leyland’s 4 and 6 cylinder, BS-III CEV compliant engines with inline Fuel Injection Equipment (first in segment) offers best-in-class performance, low total cost of ownership and ease of maintenance. Our engines are renowned and proven in construction industry and are backed by nationwide dedicated service network. We provide complete end to end solutions including application engineering which adds value to the customers.
Current Market Share is over 25%. In certain segments like compressors, we have over 75% market share in India.
Plans to increase Market Share:
- Continue to provide value to the end customers
- Expand in applications
Brief us the type of co-operation with OEMs in developing the engine for their application. Also indicate if the inputs are provided by OEM or arrived at after application studies; and the typical time from concept to commissioning.
Ashok Leyland carries out the application study of the equipment and operating conditions along with the OEMs to suggest best engine configuration/packaging requirements. Engines are fine-tuned to suit the applications and ensure they deliver the expected customer experience. The conception to prototype commissioning for typical customer takes around 12 – 16 weeks.
What are the special requirements for machine applications? Please explain the aftersales service support and dealer network to meet the needs. Comment on the TCO, performance parameters and initial investment expectations of customers.
Special requirements for machine applications are:
- Equipment specific requirements, viz., Power, Torque, Electrical system, Auxiliaries, etc.
- Equipment operating conditions, packaging requirements and operating environment factors
Our dealership network pan-India provides service & spares support.
We at Ashok Leyland truly believe in ‘Aapki Jeet, Hamari Jeet’. The end customers do not compromise on performance expectations against better TCO, including better initial investment costs. Having the best initial cost of the equipment is the first step in meeting customer expectations followed by optimal fuel and maintenance costs.
Provide us the details of aftermarket business and its contribution share in your sales revenue. How do you compete in the non-proprietary spares subsegment and what are the typical recommended spares?
For the construction equipment industry, we do not separate the aftermarket business and its contribution share in the overall sales revenue. The availability and better uptime coupled with competitively priced spares enable us to compete on non-proprietary spares.
Typical recommended spares are consumables such as Lube oil and fuel filters. The AMCs are serviced by our nationwide service dealer network
Can you comment on impact of rapid advancements in technology? How do you see the market evolve over the next 4 years? Tell us also about the impact of GST / demonetisation on your supplies to CE market.
We have a very capable R&D organisation that ensures that we offer the latest technology and value added features, meeting the stringent emission norms. Our R&D engineers are developing future ready H series and Neptune engines for the automotive segment. For the construction equipment, we do the application development to suit the growing demands. We view it as an opportunity to contribute in the nationwide green initiative as a good corporate citizen.
Market is expected to grow by 8-10% in next 4 years. We will help our customers by bringing in new products and improve on the existing ones to grow in this segment
With the current Government programs on infrastructure development, we do not foresee any major long term impact on market due to GST/demonetisation.