Ashok Leyland on Tuesday rolled out 10 models of tippers and tractor trailers in the 16-tonne to 49-tonne segment built under a brand new U-truck platform.
The price of tractor trailers will range from Rs.16.32 lakh to Rs. 23.41 lakh, depending on the tonnage capacity and comfort features. The price of U-truck tippers will range from Rs. 14.43 lakh to Rs. 31.81 lakh.
Initially, these vehicles will be available in Chennai. Pan-India sale will begin in the next six weeks. Ashok Leyland is also planning to storm the market with 15 more models on the U-truck platform in the next 12 months.
The Hinduja flagship company has also come out with a host of first-in-the-industry innovative service care packages to give a big push to the U-truck platform vehicles in the marketplace.
A four-year driveline warranty on tractors, a two-year-warranty on trippers, an ‘all cover' insurance for cashless repair against accidents, extension of Tatkaal (a scheme to attend distress calls) to cover the entire Golden Quadrilateral are among the customer-centric initiatives that the commercial vehicle maker has announced.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Managing Director R. Seshasayee said the launch of U-truck platform-based vehicles was “a definitive kind of a change for the company'' and would revolutionise the experience on the roads. These were not premium products, he said.
“These are products for all and products for every market, giving customers value and comfort at affordable price,'' he added.
Initially, these vehicles would be made at Pantnagar in Uttarakhand. Over a period, all plants would make U-truck platform vehicles, he added. The Managing Director said the U-truck platform was a flexible one and could facilitate a variety of options. The U-truck platform could undergo changes “as we go along,” he added.
Mr. Seshasayee said all the plants would move away from legacy vehicles to new U-truck platform-based ones in the next one-and-a-half years. On the potential, he said the entire volume in the medium and heavy vehicle segment was available for the U-truck vehicles. The tipper and tractor constituted about 30 per cent of the medium and heavy vehicle segment, he added. The Managing Director said Ashok Leyland was hoping to sell 5,000 to 6,000 U-truck vehicles in the next three months. By the middle of 2012-13, he said, the company would have fully moved away from legacy to the U-truck platform.
