Bada Dost’s acceptance has given us the confidence to enter the small truck segment: Dheeraj Hinduja

Ashok Leyland has said its proposed plan to foray into the sub-2 tonne small truck segment has been prompted by the market acceptance of the Bada Dost, developed through in-house capabilities and learnings from its 12-year journey in the LCV market .

“Like in the medium- and heavy-duty truck and bus segments, we want to make sure that there are no white spaces left for us in the LCV segment. So wherever we can come in with a new vehicle through a strategy, we would be looking into that segment,” Dheeraj Hinduja, Executive Chairman of Ashok Leyland, told businessline in an exclusive interaction.

In a recent discussion with analysts and investors, the second-largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle player unveiled its growth plans covering all product segments. Among others, it announced its intent to enter the Tata Ace-dominated mini-truck market (which has a payload capacity of less than a tonne), which it avoided in the past.

The Hinduja flagship said many times in the past that it would focus on pickups with a 2-3.5 tonne GVW (gross vehicle weight), stating that the mini-truck category was too crowded and customers were shifting to higher payload vehicles. Pick-ups come with a payload capacity of more than 1 tonne. In September 2011, the company rolled out its pick-up Dost (with a payload capacity of 1.25 tonnes), developed in technical collaboration with Nissan.

Since both Ashok Leyland and Nissan parted ways, Ashok Leyland’s R&D worked on a successor to Dost and rolled out Bada Dost in September 2020 with higher payloads. Both the products have helped Ashok Leyland emerge as Number 2 in the pickup segment, which has been dominated by Mahindra & Mahindra.

“While Dost was developed through a joint venture with Nissan, Bada Dost was completely our own development, and the introduction of Bada Dost gave us more confidence that we have an understanding of the market. With the same confidence, we can look at the other categories in the LCV market,” said Hinduja.

With the proposed entry into the sub-2 tonne GVW segment, Ashok Leyland aims to become a full-range player in the LCV segment (up to 7.5 tonne GVW). In FY23, AL had a market share of about 20 per cent in the 2-3.5 tonne GVW segment with its Dost and Bada Dost products. This segment accounted for 59 per cent (3.28 lakh units) of the total LCV volumes, while the sub-2 tonne GVW segment contributed 35 per cent (1.93 lakh units) to the total volumes.

The company has proposed to increase the market share to 25 per cent from 20 per cent supported by new upcoming product launches such as battery-powered variants of Dost and Bada Dost.

Hinduja said the company would initially target fleet companies and e-commerce players for the electric Dost and Bada Dost.