Chennai, April 29 (Inditop.com) The Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture will start rolling out its light commercial vehicles (LCVs) out of the former’s Hosur facility near Bangalore as well as from Renault-Nissan’s car plant near here.
“Bulk of the Ashok Leyland-Nissan LCV production will happen at our Hosur facility. Some models will be rolled out from Nissan’s car plant. Initially it will be contract manufacturing. In the second phase the LCV joint venture will have its own plant once it gets the required land,” Ashok Leyland managing director R. Seshasayee told reporters here Thursday.
According to him, Ashok Leyland has invested around Rs.100 crore at Hosur plant to roll out the LCVs in 2011.
The joint venture will operate in the 2.5-7.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight (GVW) segment.
Asked about the Renault-Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn’s announcement that the alliance will make a small car partnering with Ashok Leyland, Seshasayee said: “We will make a joint announcement later on that project.”
He declined to comment whether the company is rethinking on the proposed car project.
He termed it speculative on the possibility of Renault-Nissan alliance taking a stake in Ashok Leyland though the latter is having three joint ventures connected with LCV and a possibility of a car venture.
About Ashok Leyland’s other joint venture with John Deere for construction equipment, he said the plant is under construction near here and the first unit will be rolled out in October this year.
He said the company has earmarked Rs.1,200 crore towards capital expenditure over the next couple of years in addition to investments in joint ventures to the tune of Rs.800 crore.
Ashok Leyland closed fiscal 2009-10 with a turnover of Rs.7,244.71 crore and a net profit of Rs.423.67 crore as against Rs.5,981.07 crore and Rs.190 crore respectively earned the previous year.
“The second half of the last year has been very impressive. The market turned around and we were able to take advantage of traction in the market to double our sales in the second half,” he said.
Ashok Leyland sold 63,926 units last year as against 54,431 units in the previous year.
