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Hinduja Group company Ashok Leyland is all set to vroom into the construction industry vehicle segment with its first product, backhoe loaders, in the second quarter of the current fiscal, signalling a trend in which auto majors are seen gearing up to push new products in this segment.
The company will be rolling out the new product in partnership with US-based John Deere, with the vehicle to be named Leyland Deere.
It was only in February this year that Mahindra & Mahindra entered the construction industry vehicle segment with the unveiling of its first product, earth moving machines.
Auto major Tata Motors has been a market leader in this space, having rolled out products in collaboration with Japan's Hitachi.
Industry analysts say auto majors are looking at this segment with interest, especially enthused by the Government's sharp focus on infrastructure development. The market size for construction vehicles, including those used for malls, roads and high-rise buildings, is estimated at between 55,000 and 60,000.
“We will follow up the launch of the backhoe loaders with excavators after about a year,” Mr Vinod K. Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland, told Business Line on the sidelines of a transport function here.
The company is also entering the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) sector; it had a soft launch a couple of weeks ago.
No change in brand name
Asked about the reported move by the Hinduja Group to restructure the Ashok Leyland brand, Mr Dasari made it clear that there would be no change in the brand name. “Our effort now is to strengthen the Leyland brand through increased marketing and advertisement spends as it is a powerful brand,” he said.
When specifically asked whether Ashok Leyland would be renamed Hinduja Leyland, he said “I do not think so.”
Mr Dasari felt that overall the current fiscal would be better than the last one in terms of off-take of different categories of vehicles. “We did 94,000 vehicles last year and this year we will be crossing the one-lakh-mark. This is excluding the 20,000 LCVs we plan to do,” he said.
Ashok Leyland will be investing Rs 800 crore this fiscal. “In the last six months alone, we have launched 600 new models of our existing products,” he said.
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