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Bhubaneswar, Dec 12: Commercial vehicles major Ashok Leyland is eyeing 25 per cent market share in the state in the Light Commercial Vehicles segment over the next year. It believes the growth would be powered by new launches every six to eight months. Currently Ashok Leyland holds 15 per cent share of sales in the state, of which 70 per cent comes from Cuttack and Bhubaneswar.
Nitin Seth, President light Commercial Vehicles, who was in town for the launch of ‘Dost +’ a light commercial vehicle from the company’s stables, added: “We have started exports of Euro V vehicles to Ukraine and Russia, which is 5 per cent of our total sales and is hopeful to reach 15 per cent and 18 per cent.” Seth said the company has no plans for brownfield or greenfield expansion as they were producing more than the demand.
Seth said the company’s Hosur plant produces 50,000 LCVs against sales of 40,000 units and 1.5 lakh trucks against sales of 1 lakh units.
Coming to ‘Dost +’, Seth said the vehicle priced between `5.61 lakh (ex showroom Bhubaneswar) and `5.91 lakh (ex showroom Bhubaneswar) will be available in two variants with power steering in one variant and air conditioner the other. He said the industry size for light commercial vehicles in the country was 4.5 lakh vehicles per year, whereas the potential for same overseas, such as in Gulf countries and in Africa, was 8,00,000 vehicles per year.
