Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland is expecting full capacity utilisation of its facility at Hosur for Dost, the light commercial vehicle (LCV) under the joint venture with Nissan, by next fiscal year.
The LCV has reached sales of around 2,800 units a month. Around 20,479 units of Dost had been marketed across eight states in the country so far. The sales is growing according to the demand and the production capacity of 55,000 units a year, which the company set up at Hosur facility, would be completely utilised by the next fiscal year.
V Sumantran, vice chairman, Ashok Leyland and chairman, Nissan Ashok Leyland Powertrain Ltd, said “the production might be limited by the capacity of the production facility,” though the company is working on ways to avoid any such situation.
While the company, along with Nissan, is planning to set up a greenfield facility to manufacture Dost, at Pillaipakkam in Tamil Nadu, it expects capacity constrain to continue till the new facility comes up. It has received around 280 acres at Pillaipakkam from the government, and it would take 2-2.5 years to bring up the greenfield facility.
The company expects to cover 11 states and set up around 89 outlets by the end of March 2013. It would expand to Madhya Pradesh, the National Capital Region and Uttar Pradesh within the time, said Nitin Seth, executive director – LCV, Ashok Leyland.
The all-India market share for Dost is around 21 per cent. The company also expects its next product from the JV with Nissan to be launched this month.
To commemorate the first anniversary Dost , the company has rolled out its limited version edition.