Ashok Leyland Limited, along with its subsidiaries, produces and sells commercial vehicles in India with international recognition. The company offers multiple sorts of buses; trucks for mining and construction, as well as tractors; light vehicles; and defence vehicles comprising water bowsers, snow clearing vehicles, refrigerated trucks, ambulances etc.
Ashok Leyland Limited is offering power solutions, among which diesel generator sets, engines for earthmoving equipment, compressors, cranes, road sweepers etc. are significant. It is also manufacturing agriculture engines for pump set, harvester combine applications, etc. Besides that, the company is providing spare parts and forgings and castings. Several services, such as driver training services and vehicle and housing financing services, are provided by the company. The company was established in 1948, and its headquarter is at Chennai, India. It is a subsidiary of Hinduja Automotive Limited.
Being Nation's 2nd largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles, Ashok Leyland Ltd is the 4th largest producer of buses in the whole world and possessing 12th position among truck producers globally. The company was incepted in 1948 as Ashok Motors. It was set up while a collaboration took place with Austin Motor Company, England for the assembly of Austin cars. In the next year 1949, the company opened a factory at Ennore, Madras.
In 1950, signing an agreement with Leyland (UK), Ashok Motors achieved rights up to seven years to import, assemble and manufacture Leyland trucks. In 1954, after getting the Government approval to manufacture the Leyland commercial vehicles, Ashok Motors was granted a license to produce 1,000 Comets a year. Following equity participation from Leyland Motors Ltd., the company's name got changed to Ashok Leyland Ltd. in 1955. In 1967, first Indian-made double-decker having 50% indigenous components, namely 'Titan' was introduced by the company.
In 1970, the company started to intervene in the defence requirement by manufacturing 1,000 numbers of the 6x4 Hippo Tipper. The license was given to manufacturing 10,000 vehicles a year to the company in 1972. Four years later in 1976, the company launched a bus, namely Viking, which is facilitated with front entry along with an alternator and a unique overhang. The company launched Cheetah, the Nation's first rear-engine bus in 1978. In 1980, the company established its second plant in Hosur. The company introduced the country's first vestibule or the articulated bus in 1982. The company received ISO 9001 Certification in 1995. An all-terrain logistic vehicle, namely Stallion, was launched in 1997.
The company launched Nation's first Hybrid Electric Vehicle in 2002. The company launched the truck business of Czech Republic-based AVIA in 2006. In 2007, a joint venture took place between Ashok Leyland Ltd and Nissan Motor Company, Japan for production and marketing of Light Commercial Vehicles. In 2008, another joint venture took place between the company and USA's John Deere, for the manufacturing the equipment for construction. A plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand was opened in March 2010. The company intervened the Tanzanian market acquiring an order for 723 trucks, buses and select application vehicles in September 2011.
The stake in Optare plc was increased to 75.1%, in January 2012. In September 2016, the amalgamation of Hinduja Foundries Limited (HFL) with the Company was approved by the Board of Directors of the company. As in March 2017, 24 Subsidiaries, 7 Associate Companies and 2 Joint venture companies are possessed by the company. The company declared its great achievement of being chosen by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) top fulfil a critical order. The defence ministry was asked to supply Ashok Leylands High Mobility 10x10 vehicles (HMV 10x10) which are capable of carrying Smerch Rockets. The company is at a target to achieve this prestigious target of Rs.100 crore. With revenue of Rs.29, 620 the company is enjoying an Operating Profit of Rs.4248 crore in 2018.
How Ashok Leyland Ltd is categorised as Auto Sector, and Auto - HCVs & LCVs Industry:
The commercial vehicle industry is one of the segments in Auto sectors. It's broadly categorized as Medium & Heavy Commercial vehicles (M&HCV) and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV). The classification is based on the Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) of the vehicle. The liberalization of government policy about technical, foreign and financial collaboration head to a sudden spurt in industrial collaboration in the LCV segment. The liberal international technology policy leads to abundant improvement in commercial vehicles technology. But at the same time, the import bill plummeted at an accelerated pace as these vehicles had high import content.
Ashok Leyland Ltd is categorised as Auto Sector, and Auto - HCVs & LCVs Industry. The Auto sector includes several types of companies that deals with the automobile industry. Besides auto manufacturers, it consists of a broad range of companies which focuses on manufacturing parts that go into cars, two-wheelers and trucks. It also includes few other companies that are responsible for vehicle sales, rentals or repairs.
Ashok Leyland Ltd, Competitors and Sector Peers:
Eicher Motors Ltd. EICMOT
