Ashok Leyland and Nissan Motor Company on Tuesday reiterated that their joint venture will launch light commercial vehicles (LCVs) in mid-2011 as per schedule. The only change is that instead of making the LCVs at a proposed new greenfield project, Ashok Leyland and Nissan Motor Company have decided to manufacture it from their existing plants initially to avoid any delay. The joint venture company will introduce three new products under three different platforms from mid-2011 till 2013.
?The first product will be rolled out from ALL?s Hosur plant during mid-2011 under its own brand and the second LCV will be rolled out of our Oragadam’s plant during second half of 2011 under Nissan brand. The third LCV will be again that of ALL and from its Hosur plant by early 2013,? Nissan Motor Company senior vice-president Andy Palmer said.
The initial capacity will be that of 1,50,000 units per annum and around one-fifth will be earmarked for export purpose, he said.
The LCVs will be manufactured under three different platform, including Nissan’s Atlas F24 platform and will have the capacity ranging between 3 tonne to 7.5 tonne. The LCVs will also have different variants and will not compete each other rather complement and will cover 90% of the Indian LCVs market, estimated to be around 350,000 units per annum, he said. Palmer said, ?Based on the success of these products and the availability of necessary land (looking at near Chennai), both the companies will move to the next stage – setting up of a greenfield project to make complete range of LCVs as per original agreement.?
Palmer said, ?We have no plans to cross-sell each other products. ALL will market its LCVs through its own distribution network and Nissan will sell through its dealers network. While Nissan products will be that of premium/high-end targeting niche customers and that of ALL’s will target volume market.” ?Nissan has technology but does not know the Indian market. ALL is strong in domestic market but do not have technology. With ALL’s domestic strength, vendors network and cost effective sourcing, the JV will come out with best products at most competitive prices,? he added.