Ashok Leyland rolls out 200,000th unit of 'Dost' LCV from TN plant

Hinduja group flagship Ashok Leyland has rolled out the 2,00,000th unit of light commercial vehicle "Dost" from its manufacturing facility, a top official said.

The 2,00,000th unit was the company's highly popular "Dost" range of model, which was rolled out from the assembly line at its manufacturing unit in Hosur about 300kms from here.

"The roll-out of two lakh units happened on March 31. It was a golden biege Dost that rolled out from the factory," Ashok Leyland, Light Commercial Vehicle business, President, Nitin Seth told PTI here.

The city-based commercial vehicle manufacturer forayed into the light commercial vehicle business with the launch of the 'Dost' range of vehicles in September 2011 and the roll-out of the 1,00,000th unit from the factory was achieved in March 2015.

"Earlier days when we launched DOST range, we were selling about 2,500 units per month. Gradually we increased it and in March we crossed 5,000 units (of Dost sales)," he said.

In FY 2017-18, Ashok Leyland achieved highest LCV sales of 43,441 units, a growth of 37 per cent of previous year as against the industry growth of 28 per cent, he said.

In FY 2017-18, the company launched DOST+ variant which added strength to the existing DOST brand, he said.

"Crossing the 5,000 units per month mark in LCV sales is for the first time for us. For Ashok Leyland, this milestone is the beginning of our next growth chapter where we focus on bringing in more LCV products in the market", he said.

Apart from retailing 'Dost' range of vehicles, Ashok Leyland sells 'PARTNER' and 'MITR' under the LCV range through its 400 outlets present across the country. 'PARTNER' is retailed with four tonne payload capacity.

'MITR' is a new age 27-seater LCV bus, which the company claims offers 15 per cent more mileage than the competition.