Ashok Leyland plans to develop new products for European foray

The Hinduja Group flagship company Ashok Leyland should be excited as plans are in place to sail into the European markets. The company has tied up with Turkish company Utikar to make its European foray possible.

Ashok Leyland plans to develop a new range of inter-city and intra-city buses for West Asia, North Africa and the CIS markets.

Ashok Leyland will develop 8-metre buses and with Katmerciler and Volkan, a special equipment manufacturer in Europe. It also plans to develop special application vehicles such as garbage compactors, hook loaders and fire trucks for the European markets. Utikar will help Ashok Leyland develop these special application products.

The company has chosen Turkey to make its European foray because it will act as a distribution base to reach markets like Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and West Asia. These operations will complement the bus supplies from the company’s manufacturing facility at Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE.

Ashok Leyland is also likely to export trucks which have capacity in the range of 9 tonne, 16 tonne and 25 tonne to other European countries with the chassis built locally in Turkey.

[Source: Business-Standard.com]