Ashok Leyland Information

Ashok Leyland is an Indian automobile company headquartered in Chennai, India. It is owned by the Hinduja Group.

Founded in 1948, it is the second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in India, fourth largest manufacturer of buses in the world and 10th largest manufacturer of trucks globally. Operating nine plants, Ashok Leyland also makes spare parts and engines for industrial and marine applications. It sold approximately 140,000 vehicles (MandHCV + LCV) in FY 2016. It is the second largest commercial vehicle company in India in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle (MandHCV) segment, with a market share of 32.1% (FY 2016). With passenger transportation options ranging from 10 seaters to 74 seaters (MandHCV = LCV), Ashok Leyland is a market leader in the bus segment. In the trucks segment Ashok Leyland primarily concentrates on the 16 to 25-ton range. However, Ashok Leyland has a presence in the entire truck range, from 7.5 to 49 tons.

Ashok Motors was founded in 1948 by Raghunandan Saran. He is an Indian freedom fighter from Punjab. After Independence, he was persuaded by Indias first Prime Minister Nehru to invest in a modern industrial venture. Ashok Motors was incorporated in 1948 as a company to assemble and manufacture Austin cars from England, and the company was named after the founders only son, Ashok Saran. The company had its headquarters in Rajaji Saalai, Chennai (then Madras) with the plant in Ennore, a small fishing hamlet in the North of Chennai. The company was engaged in the assembly and distribution of Austin A40 passenger cars in India.

Raghunandan Saran had previously negotiated with Leyland Motors of England for assembly of commercial vehicles as he envisioned commercial vehicle were more in need at that time than were passenger cars. The company later under Madras State Government and other shareholders finalised for an investment and technology partner, and thus Leyland Motors joined in 1954 with equity participation, changing the name of the company to Ashok Leyland. Ashok Leyland then started manufacturing commercial vehicles. Under Leylands management with British expatriate and Indian executives the company grew in strength to become one of Indias foremost commercial vehicle manufacturers.

The collaboration ended sometime in 1975 but the holding of British Leyland, now a major British Auto Conglomerate as a result of several mergers, agreed to assist in technology, which continued until the 1980s. After 1975, changes in management structures saw the company launch various vehicles in the Indian market, with many of these models continuing to this day with numerous upgrades over the years.

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, part of the Fiat Group.

In 2007, the Hinduja Group also bought out Ivecos indirect stake in Ashok Leyland. The promoter shareholding now stands at 51%. Today the company is the flagship of the Hinduja Group, a British-based and Indian originated trans-national conglomerate.

During the early 1980s Ashok Leyland entered into a collaboration with Japanese company Hino Motors from whom technology for the H-series engines was sourced. Many indigenous versions of the H-series engine were developed with 4 and 6 cylinders, and also conforming to BS2, BS3 and BS4 emission standards 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. Japan entered into a Mutual Cooperation Agreement (MCA) on 27 November 2017 renewing their cooperative agreement that had started in 1986. According to the agreement Ashok Leyland will use Hinos engine technology for its Euro 6 development and will support in the development of Hinos engine parts purchasing in India for global operation.

Ashok Leyland Defence Systems (ALDS), Russias Rosoboronexport and ELCOM Group have signed a cooperation agreement in defence business to provide tracked vehicles to Indian Armed Forces. The agreement was signed on the side lines of the International Military Technical Forum Army – 2017 held at Kubinka, near Moscow, on 25 August 2017.

Ashok Leyland and Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) signed a memorandum of understanding, on 19 August 2017, for Ashok Leyland to sponsor the Centre of Battery Engineering (CoBE) at IIT Madras. As part of the agreement Ashok Leyland has partnered with IIT Madras to carry out research and development (RandD) activities for strengthening battery engineering and related sub-parts, especially for electric vehicles.

On 18 July 2017 Ashok Leyland announced the formation of an alliance with SUN Mobility, The global partnership aims to develop electric vehicles.

In the late 1980s Iveco investment and partnership resulted in Ashok Leyland launching the Cargo range of trucks based on European Ford Cargo trucks. The Cargo entered production in 1994, at Ashok Leylands new plant in Hosur, southeast of Bengaluru. These vehicles used Iveco engines and for the first time had factory-fitted cabs. Though the Cargo trucks are no longer in production and the use of Iveco engine was discontinued, the cab continues to be used on the Ecomet range of trucks as well as for several of Ashok Leylands military vehicles.

The Cargo was originally introduced in 7 and 9 long tons (7,100 and 9,100 kg) versions; later, heavier-duty models from 15 to 26 long tons (15,200 to 26,400 kg) were progressively introduced.

Current range

JanBus is the worlds first single step front engine bus introduced by Ashok Leyland .

Ashok Leyland MiTR (or MiTR) is a Minibus manufactured by Ashok Leyland in Joint venture with Nissan. The vehicle was unveiled in January 2014 during the 12th Auto Expo 2014 and was launched in July 2014.

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 was used 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.

Former range

Early products included the Leyland Comet bus which was a passenger body built on a truck chassis sold in large numbers to many operators in India. By 1963, the Comet was operated by every state transport undertaking in India, and over 8,000 were in service. It was soon joined in production by a version of the Leyland Tiger.

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