Leyland Nissan rolls out Dost from Hosur facility

[.sushilkumar]

Hope there is no other thread that exists for the subject.
mods - pls move / merge as necessary
The Hindu : Business News : Leyland Nissan rolls out Dost from Hosur facility

The LCV (light commercial vehicle) joint venture between Ashok Leyland of Hinduja Group and Nissan Motor Company of Japan has gone on stream with the roll out of its first product, Ashok Leyland Dost, from the Hosur facility of Ashok Leyland.
The commercial launch of Dost is expected to commence sometime this quarter.
The joint venture, Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles, is also planning to launch a 6-tonne truck and a mini van after the roll-out of Dost, the pick-up vehicle.
Since it is produced under its badge, Ashok Leyland will do the marketing of Dost.
Dost, it is argued, will primarily appeal to customers in the segment, which comprises Tata Ace, Mahindra's Maxximo and Genio.
The company is hoping to scale up the production capacity to 55,000 units over the next one-and-a-half years.
Touted as a brand new offering, Ashok Leyland Dost is built on contemporary technology and promises to offer customers a new experience. The 1.25-tonne payload capacity Dost is equipped with 55 hp (horse power), three cylinder 1.5-litre CRDI (common rail direct fuel injection) engine. The Euro-look cab is roomy and comfortable, claim officials from the joint venture.
Dost is expected to be made available in three variants with BS-III and BS-IV versions.
Dost, born out of a unique amalgam of Japanese quality and technology and the frugal engineering capabilities of Ashok Leyland, is Nissan's first price-centric product.
Andy Palmer, Executive Vice-President of Nissan Motor Company, conceded that Nissan, a leader in LCV globally, couldn't have produced Dost on its own. “It's a landmark product for Ashok Leyland,” said V. Sumantran, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Hinduja Automotive Ltd. and also Chairman of Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrains Ltd. The LCV joint venture, Mr. Sumantran said, would set up independent dedicated dealer networks under two brands, Leyland and Nissan, to market the and service the products of the company in India. The customer profile and their earning systems were different in the LCV segment vis-à-vis the heavy commercial vehicle segment. “Most of them are individual owners or entrepreneurs. They can't afford to keep the vehicle at service point or out of work for a long time,” he said. Hence, Ashok Leyland had decided to set up a dedicated dealer network to support the LCV customer's needs, Mr. Sumantran added.
To a query, he said that there won't be any overlap in having dedicated Ashok Leyland-branded and Nissan-branded dealer outlets. Initially, there would be 25 outlets. These would be main nodes. There would be satellite nodes as well around these main nodes, he said. The number of main nodes would be increased to 100 by next year, he said.

[Maverick79]

Oh. Finally it's launched. I have seen this in the mule stage way back in Sep '07 at their Product Development facility in Vellioyala chawadi, near Chennai.

They have a wonder full reasearch facility there. They are the only OEM in Asia to have a 6 posture testing machine.

Goodluck to AL and Nissan J.V.

[wanderernomad]

What does it look like? Is it one of the ugly looking things competing with the likes of Mahindra etc?

[Maverick79]

They were supposed to use their Pantnagar, Uttarakhand facility for this model.
Don't know why they are rolling it out from Hosur now.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Maverick79

They were supposed to use their Pantnagar, Uttarakhand facility for this model.

why should Pantnagar be used?

[Sridhar K]

Saw the AL Nissan test mule on my way to Bangalore from Chennai. Will post the snaps in a couple of days. The mule was easily doing 80+ kmph, fully loaded with plastic drums but looks very ugly indeed.

[Maverick79]

why should Pantnagar be used?

AFAIK, this facility was made for the LCV and ICV segements. It boasts a flexible assembly line.
Don't know what exactly is being assembled now there.

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Maverick79

AFAIK, this facility was made for the LCV and ICV segements. It boasts a flexible assembly line. Don't know what exactly is being assembled now there.

This facility is used for making all their M&HCV including U trucks models as they will have higher excise duty benefits.

[TheARUN]

This was on NDTV Car & Bike Show last week. Its got a snout and can carry a pay-load of 1250 kilograms. Siddarth even did a comparo with the ACE, BOLERO PICK-UP and MAXXIMO

[Maverick79]

Originally Posted by Ashley2

This facility is used for making all their M&HCV including U trucks models as they will have higher excise duty benefits.

Thank you for the info Ashley2. Are you working in their Hosur 2 facility?
When the Pantnagar plant was in construction stage, I was working at their Alwar unit. Then was the news about the facilities' usage as exclusive one for ICV and the LCV segment vehicles.
Anyways, they are making good profit now by assemblying their most profit making models there, and taking the excise benefit too.

[JagMan]

I saw the dost at the auto world expo in chennai a month or so back. they had a contest for people to guess the ex-showroom price for the dost. I was told that the vehicle would launch in a couple of months. the articles now speak of a commercial launch in 3-4 months. The cabin was roomy but spartan. They have a version with AC and Power Steering also available. The display vehicle had generic 14 inch tyres.

[SAE40 in veins]

Originally Posted by Maverick79

They have a wonder full reasearch facility there. They are the only OEM in Asia to have a 6 posture testing machine.

FYKI Tata Motors operates an 8 Poster testing machine in their Jamshedpur facility. How come a 6 poster machine is big news when others right here in India are operating things bigger than that?

[Ashley2]

Originally Posted by Maverick79

Thank you for the info Ashley2. Are you working in their Hosur 2 facility? ..

No I dont work there!

Originally Posted by SAE40 in veins

FYKI Tata Motors operates an 8 Poster testing machine in their Jamshedpur facility. How come a 6 poster machine is big news when others right here in India are operating things bigger than that?

This should be a very recent addition(max could be a year old). AFAIK 6 posters when installed some 5 years back that was one of its kind in India, not sure of whole of Asia.

[Transsenger]

Originally Posted by SAE40 in veins

FYKI Tata Motors operates an 8 Poster testing machine in their Jamshedpur facility. How come a 6 poster machine is big news when others right here in India are operating things bigger than that?

I believe, this was installed towards the end of 2007 or in 2008.

[nbr]

Teaser found on the Ashok Leyland Facebook page!