Ashok Leyland (NSE: ASHOKLEY, BSE: 500477) is a commercial vehicle manufacturing company based in Chennai, India.

Founded in 1948, the company is one of India's leading manufacturers of commercial vehicles, such as trucks and buses, as well as emergency and military vehicles. Operating six plants, Ashok Leyland also makes spare parts and engines for industrial and marine applications. It sells about 60,000 vehicles and about 7,000 engines annually. It is the second largest commercial vehicle company in India in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle (M&HCV) segment with a market share of 28% (200708). With passenger transportation options ranging from 19 seaters to 80 seaters, Ashok Leyland is a market leader in the bus segment.The company claims to carry over 60 million passengers a day, more people than the entire Indian rail network. In the trucks segment Ashok Leyland primarily concentrates on the 16 ton to 25 ton range of trucks. However Ashok Leyland has presence in the entire truck range starting from 7.5 tons to 49 tons. The joint venture announced with Nissan Motors of Japan would improve its presence in the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) segment (<Ashok Leyland is the second technology leader in the commercial vehicles sector of India. The history of the company has been punctuated by a number of technological innovations, which have since become industry norms. It was the first to introduce multiaxled trucks, full air brakes and a host of innovations like the rear engine and articulated buses in India. In 1997, the company launched the countrys first CNG bus and in 2002, developed the first Hybrid Electric Vehicle. The company has also maintained its profitable track record for 60 years. The annual turnover of the company was USD 1.4 billion in 2008-09. Selling 54,431 medium and heavy vehicles in 2008-09, Ashok Leyland is India's largest exporter of medium and heavy duty trucks. It is also one of the largest private sector employers in India - with about 12,000 employees working in 6 factories and offices spread over the length and breadth of India. The company has increased its rated capacity to 105,000 vehicles per annum. Also further investment plans including putting up two new plants - one in Uttarakhand in North India and a bus body building unit in middle-east Asia are fast afoot. It already has a sizable presence in African countries like Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and South Africa. Ashok Leyland has also entered into some significant partnerships, seizing growth opportunities offered by diversification and globalization with Continental Corporation for automotive infotronics; with Alteams in Finland for high pressure die casting and recently, with John Deere for construction [5] equipment. As part of this global strategy, the company acquired Czech Republic-based Avia's truck business. The newly acquired company has been named Avia Ashok Leyland Motors s.r.o. This gives Ashok Leyland a foothold in the highly competitive European truck market. In 2010 Ashok Leyland acquired a 26% stake in the British bus manufacturer Optare, a company based on the premises of a former British Leyland subsidiary C.H.Roe. In December 2011 Ashok Leyland increased its stake in Optare to 75.1%. The Hinduja Group also bought out IVECO's indirect stake in Ashok Leyland in 2007. The promoter shareholding now stands at 51%. Leyland has a state of the art research and development center at Vellivoyal Chavadi which is located near Chennai. Hinduja Group flagship company Ashok Leyland has been awarded the first overseas order worth $6 million for its vestibule buses fromBangladesh [6] Road Transport Corporation (BRTC). [edit]Nissan

Ashok Leyland

In 2007, the company announced a joint venture with Japanese auto giant Nissan (Renault Nissan Group) which will share a common manufacturing facility in Chennai, India. The shareholding structures of the three joint venture companies are: Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles Pvt. Ltd., the vehicle manufacturing company will be owned 51% by Ashok Leyland and 49% by Nissan Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrain Pvt. Ltd., the powertrain manufacturing company will be owned 51% by Nissan and 49% by Ashok Leyland Nissan Ashok Leyland Technologies Pvt. Ltd., the technology development company will be owned 50:50 by the two partners.

Dr. V. Sumantran, Executive Vice Chairman of Hinduja Automotive Limited and a Director on the Board of Ashok Leyland is the Chairman of the Powertrain company and he is on the Boards of the other two JV companies. The venture, once it takes off, will be one of the largest investments made in automotive field in the country [edit]iBUS Ashok Leyland announced iBUS in the beginning of 2008, as part of the future for the country's increasingly traffic-clogged major cities. Its Rs 60-lakh, iBus, a feature-filled, low-floor concept bus for the metros revealed during the Auto Expo 2008 in India, a vehicle for a first production run of pilot models should be ready by the end of this[?] year. The start of full production is scheduled for 2009. Developed by a team of young engineers, the low-floored iBus will have the first of its kind features, including anti-lock braking system, electronic engine management and passenger infotainment. The executive class has an airline like ambience with wide LCD screens, reading lights, audio speakers and, for the first time, Internet on the move. A GPS system enables vehicle tracking and display of dynamic route information on LCD screens, which can also support infotainment packages including live data and news. The bus will probably be equipped with an engine from the new Neptune family, which Ashok Leyland also introduced at this exhibition, which are ready for the BS4/Euro 4 emission [7] regulations and can be upgraded to Euro 5. [edit]U-Truck Ashok Leyland, announced sale of vehicles on the new U-Truck platform from November, 2010 with the rolling out of the first set of 10 models of tippers and tractor trailers in the 16 49-tonne segment. Further, another 15 models are set to enter the market in the next 12 months. [edit]Dost DOST is a 1.25 ton light commercial vehicle (LCV) that is the first product to be launched by the Indian-Japanese commercial vehicle joint venture Ashok Leyland Nissan Vehicles. Dost is powered by a 55 hp high-torque, 3-cylinder, turbo-charged Common Rail Diesel engine and has a payload capacity of 1.25 Tonnes. It is available in both BS3 and BS4 versions. The LCV is being produced in Ashok Leyland's plant in Tamil Nadu's Hosur. The LCV is available in three versions with the top-end version featuring air-conditioning, power steering, dual-colour of a beige-gray trim and fabric seats. With the launch of Dost Ashok Leyland has now entered the Light Commercial Vehicle segment in [8][9][10][11][12] India [edit]Ashok

Leyland Defence Systems

An Indian road-mobile launcher with a ballistic missile

Ashok Leyland Defence Systems (ALDS) is a newly floated company by the Hinduja Group. Ashok Leyland, the flagship company of Hinduja group, holds 26 percent in the newly formed Ashok Leyland Defence Systems (ALDS). The newly floated company has a mandate to design and develop defence [13] logistics and tactical vehicles, defence communication and other systems. Ashok Leyland is the largest supplier of logistics vehicles to the Indian Army. It has supplied over 60,000 of [14] its Stallion vehicles which form the Army's logistics backbone. 7.5 tons).