Ashok Leyland launches intermediate commercial vehicle Boss

Targeting a higher market share, Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland on Monday announced the commercial launch of its new intermediate commercial vehicle (ICV) Boss, manufactured at its plant at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand.

"Ashok Leyland already has a range of trucks with the brand name Ecomet in ICV range. With that, our market share is about 8 to 10 per cent and now with this (Boss) we plan to grow our market share," the commercial vehicle maker's head of ICV trucks, Sandeep Agarwal, told reporters.

"In Medium Duty Vehicles (MDV) we are close to 40 per cent market share- our aspiration and goal is to achieve similar market share in the ICV space as well, because if we can sell in MDV with same infrastructure, same manpower and good product- we are sure that we will be able to do well in the ICV products also," he added.

Without divulging any sales figures, he said, "What I can tell you is in spite of the down fall in the industry, Ashok Leyland has maintained and grown its market share, it is very difficult to put a number to it, but we are confident that we will further grow our market share in the coming months."

"It is very difficult to put any numbers because the way the industry is going up and down- it will be too big a guess work to put any numbers;.....industry has de-grown significantly over the last eight months, it varies from segment to segment, but almost 30 per cent drop the industry has seen over the last eight months," he added.

Officials said Boss is available in LE and LX variants, priced between Rs 10.5 lakh and Rs 12 lakh, depending on the variants and load span.

Stating that Boss would be produced in India and exported to other countries, Mr Agarwal said, "We already were selling this product in US and Europe, now we will be producing it in India and selling it globally."

"This product comes from Avia platform, we acquired a company Avia in Prague, so with that brand name we are already selling this truck in the Europe and other parts of the world, now we will be producing it in India and taking care of the global requirements as well," he added.