Ashok Leyland Ltd today announced the launch of its intermediate commercial range of vehicle Boss in the Andhra Pradesh market and said that it will go pan–India with the new range in a phased manner after consolidating its presence in the southern and western region.
The intermediate range of commercial vehicles, which span vehicles with carrying capacity of 8 to 16 tonnes has grown from a volume of about 28,000 commercial vehicles per annum to 56,000 CVs per annum over the past five years doubling in terms of overall numbers.
Ashok Leyland is seeking to garner a bigger share of this segment where it was hitherto not having significant presence barring one offering.
“We are looking at growing this segment with the launch of Boss for haulage in 9.6, 11.9 and 12.9 tonnes. In a very short span of the Boss launch in southern states, we have gained market share. We expect this will go up as we initially consolidate our presence in the four southern cities and then western region before going pan-India,” Vinod K. Dasari, Managing Director of Ashok Leyland, said.
Volumes hard to come by
The market for commercial vehicle segment continues to be under severe pressure and the volumes are hard to come by. The growth of heavy commercial vehicle segment (16 tonnes and above) and the intermediate (8-16 tonnes) has declined in the last two years from about 3,30,000 to about 2,50,000. The year so far too has been tough, he explained.
The company manufactures the Boss range from its Pantnagar facility in Uttarakhand. With a capacity to manufacture 2,000 vehicles per month, it plans to initially consolidate its presence in the domestic market and later export to other markets, including those where Left-hand drive models are required.
Ashok Leyland today opened a new exclusive showroom at Autonagar in Hyderabad. The new showroom has been designed for trucks and where commercial vehicles will be sold in an environment similar to that of cars, he said.