Hinduja Group company Ashok Leyland today said it had no plans to enter the passenger car market.
The company had earlier reportedly toyed with the idea of manufacturing a ultra low cost car with Japanese auto major Nissan Motor Company but it was shelved.
"Hinduja is not going into car manufacturing production business. We can leverage the skill resources available [with Nissan for other products]," Hinduja Automotive Executive Vice Chairman Dr V Sumantran told reporters here.
He was speaking after formally unveiling their first 1.25 tonne small commercial vehicle --the "Ashok Leyland Dost", the first product from their joint venture with Nissan.
The company had in May 2008 inked three joint ventures with Nissan Motor Company to manufacture light commercial vehicle, powertrain manufacturing and technology development.
Early this year, Hinduja Group of Companies Co-Chairman Gopichand P Hinduja had confirmed there was "no talks" with Nissan for the small car project.
When asked Nissan Motor Company Executive Vice-President Dr Andy Palmer said, "Price entry cars are incredibly hard to manufacture. There is no single price entry car market..There may be successful models from various joint ventures (globally). Some projects may fail, some become successful... but this is a (Nissan's joint venture with Ashok Leyland) successul model."
Leyland and Nissan today rolled out their first 1.25 tonne small commercial vehicle Ashok Leyland Dost from Hosur facility.
