History
The origin of Ashok Leyland can be traced to the urge for self-reliance, felt by independent India. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister, persuaded Mr Raghunandan Saran, an industrialist, to enter automotive manufacture. The company was established in 1948 as Ashok Motors, to assemble Austin cars. The company’s destiny and name changed soon with equity participation by British Leyland and Ashok Leyland commenced manufacture of commercial vehicles in 1955. Today the company is the flagship of the Hinduja Group, a British-based and Indian originated transnational conglomerate.
Early products included the Leyland Comet bus which was a passanger body built on a truck chassis, sold in large numbers to many operators, including Hyderabad Road Transport, Ahmedabad Municipality, Travancore State Transport, Bombay State Transport and Delhi Road Transport Authority. By 1963, the Comet was operated by every State Transport Undertaking in India, and over 8,000 were in service. The Comet was soon joined in production by a version of the Leyland Tiger.
In 1968, production of the Leyland Titan ceased in Britain, but was restarted by Ashok Leyland in India. The Titan PD3 chassis was modified, and a five speed heavy duty constant-mesh gearbox utilized, together with the Ashok Leyland version of the O.680 engine. The Ashok Leyland Titan was very successful, and continued in production for many years.
Over the years, Ashok Leyland vehicles have built a reputation for reliability and ruggedness. This was mainly due to the product design legacy carried over from British Leyland.
Through tie-ups with global technology leaders, supplemented by in-house R&D infrastructure and capabilities, Ashok Leyland has maintained its technological leadership even as it offers the most comprehensive range of model configurations in its class.
Ashok Leyland had a collaboration with Hino Motors, Japan from whom the technology for the H-series engines was bought. Many indigenous versions of H-series engine were developed with 4 and 6 cylinder and also conforming to BS2 and BS3 emission norms in India. These engines proved to be extremely popular with the customers primarily for their excellent fuel efficiency. Most current models of Ashok Leyland come with H-series engines.
In 1987, the overseas holding by Land Rover Leyland International Holdings Limited (LRLIH) was taken over by a joint venture between the Hinduja Group, the Non-Resident Indian transnational group and IVECO Fiat SpA, part of the Fiat Group and Europe's leading truck manufacturer. Ashok Leyland’s long-term plan to become a global player by benchmarking global standards of technology and quality was soon firmed up. Access to international technology and a USD 200 million investment programme created a state-of-the-art manufacturing base to roll out international class products. This resulted in Ashok Leyland launching the 'Cargo' range of trucks. These vehicles used Iveco engines and for the first time had factory-fitted cabs. Though the Cargo trucks are no longer in production, the cab continues to be used on the 'ecomet' range of trucks.
In the journey towards global standards of quality, Ashok Leyland reached a major milestone in 1993 when it became the first in India's automobile history to win the ISO 9002 certification. The more comprehensive ISO 9001 certification came in 1994, QS 9000 in 1998 and ISO 14001 certification for all vehicle manufacturing units in 2002. In 2006, Ashok Leyland became the first automobile company in India to receive the TS16949 Corporate Certification.
[edit] Current Status
Ashok Leyland is a technology leader in the commercial vehicles sector of India. The history of the company has been punctuated by a number of technological innovations, which have since become industry norms. It was the first to introduce multi-axled trucks, full air brakes and a host of innovations like the rear engine and articulated buses in India. In 1997, the company launched the country’s first CNG bus and in 2002, developed the first Hybrid Electric Vehicle.
The company has also maintained its profitable track record for 60 years. The annual turnover of the company was USD 1.4 billion in 2008-09. Selling 54,431 medium and heavy vehicles in 2008-09, Ashok Leyland is India's largest exporter of medium and heavy duty trucks. It is also one of the largest private sector employers in India - with about 12,000 employees working in 6 factories and offices spread over the length and breadth of India.
The company has increased its rated capacity to 105,000 vehicles per annum. Also further investment plans including putting up two new plants - one in Uttarakhand in North India and a bus body building unit in middle-east Asia are fast afoot. It already has a sizable presence in African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa.
Ashok Leyland has also entered into some significant partnerships, seizing growth opportunities offered by diversification and globalization – with Continental Corporation for automotive infotronics; with Alteams in Finland for high pressure die casting and recently, with John Deere for construction equipment. [1]
As part of this global strategy, the company acquired Czech Republic-based Avia's truck business. The newly acquired company has been named Avia Ashok Leyland Motors s.r.o. This gives Ashok Leyland a foothold in the highly competitive European truck market.
The Hinduja Group also bought out IVECO's indirect stake in Ashok Leyland in 2007. The promoter shareholding now stands at 51%.
[edit] Nissan Ashok Leyland
In 2007, the company announced a joint venture with Japanese auto giant Nissan (Renault Nissan Group) which will share a common manufacturing facility in Chennai, India. The shareholding structures of the three joint venture companies are:
- Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., the vehicle manufacturing company will be owned 51% by Ashok Leyland and 49% by Nissan
- Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrain Pvt. Ltd., the powertrain manufacturing company will be owned 51% by Nissan and 49% by Ashok Leyland
- Nissan Ashok Leyland Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the technology development company will be owned 50:50 by the two partners.
Dr. V. Sumantran, Executive Vice Chairman of Hinduja Automotive Limited and a Director on the Board of Ashok Leyland is the Chairman of the Powertrain company and he is on the Boards of the other two JV companies. The venture, once it takes off, will be one of the largest investments made in automotive field in the country
[edit] iBUS
Ashok Leyland announced iBUS in the beginning of Last Year, as part of the future for the country's increasingly traffic-clogged major cities. Launched as a concept during the Auto Expo 2008 in India, a vehicle for a first production run of pilot models should be ready by the end of this year. The start of full production is scheduled for 2009. The bus will probably be equipped with an engine from the new Neptune family, which Ashok Leyland also introduced at this exhibition, which are ready for the BS4/Euro 4 emission regulations and can be upgraded to Euro 5.[2]
[edit] Facilities
- The company has six manufacturing locations in India:
- Ashok Leyland's Technical Centre, at Vellivoyalchavadi in the outskirts of Chennai, is a state-of-the-art product development facility, that apart from modern test tracks and component test labs, also houses India's one and only Six Poster testing equipment
- The company has an Engine Research and Development facility in Hosur
- The company is setting up a new Plant in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand at Pant Nagar at an investment outlay of Rs. 1200 crores. This plant is expected to go on stream in the year 2010. The Plant will have a capacity to produce around 40,000 commercial vehicles and is expected to cater mainly to the North Indian market taking advantage of the excise duty and other tax concessions
- The company has signed an agreement with Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA) in UAE for setting up a bus body building unit in the Middle East.
[edit] Leadership
Ashok Leyland is currently headed by Mr R. Seshasayee who is the Managing Director since 1998. Under his leadership the company has expanded from a purely India-centric company to a company with global focus. Mr. Seshasayee was also the President of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry), the apex body representing Indian Industry for the year 2006-2007.
The following are the other functional heads at Ashok Leyland:
- Mr. Vinod Dasari - Whole Time Director
- Mr. K.Sridharan - Chief Financial Officer
- Mr. J.N.Amrolia, Executive Director - Construction and Allied Businesses
- Mr. Anup Bhat, Executive Director - Strategic Sourcing
- Mr. S.Balasubramanian, Executive Director - Projects
- Mr. A.K.Jain, Executive Director - Project Planning
- Mr. R.R.G.Menon, Executive Director - Product Development
- Mr. N.Mohanakrishnan, Executive Director - Internal Audit
- Mr. M.Nataraj, Executive Director - Global Bus Strategy
- Mr. Rajindar Malhan, Executive Director - International Operations
- Mr. Rajive Saharia, Executive Director - Marketing
- Mr. Shekar Arora, Executive Director - Human Resources
- Mr. B.M.Udayashankar, Executive Director - Manufacturing
- Mr. A.R.Chandrasekaran, Executive Director - Secretarial and Company Secretary
[edit] Achievements
- At 60 million passengers a day, Ashok Leyland buses carry more people than the entire Indian rail network
- Ashok Leyland has a near 85% market share in the Marine Diesel engines markets in India
- In 2002, all the vehicle-manufacturing units of Ashok Leyland were ISO 14001 certified for their Environmental Management System. First time in Indian commercial vehicle industry
- In 2005, received the world-renowned BS7799 Certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS) - first time for an auto manufacturer in India
- In 2006, received the coveted ISO/TS 16949 Corporate Certification – first in Indian auto industry
- It is one of the leading suppliers of defense vehicles in the world and also the leading supplier of logistics vehicles to the Indian Army.
[edit] Products
(not exhaustive)
- Luxura
- Viking BS-I - city bus
- Viking BS-II - city bus
- Viking BS-III -city bus
- Cheetah BS-I
- Cheetah BS-II
- Panther
- 12M bus
- Stag Mini
- Stag CNG
- 222 CNG
- Lynx
- Double Decker
- Vestibule bus
- Airport Tarmac Coach
- Gensets
[edit] Goods segment
- Bison Haulage
- Tusker Super 1616
- Comet CO 1611
- 1613 H
- Comet Gold 1613
- Comet Tipper(4X2)
- Taurus 2516- 6 X 4 Tipper
- 2214
- Bison Tipper
- Tusker Super 2214 - 6 X 2
- Tusker Gold 2214 (6X2)
- Taurus 2516 - 6X4
- 2516 H (6X2)
- Taurus 2516 - 6 X 2
- 4018 Tractor
- Artik 30.14 Tractor
- Tusker Turbo Tractor 3516
- ecomet 912
- ecomet 111i
- 4921
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