Ashok Leyland Ltd has launched a new upgraded Dost light commercial vehicle at Telangana.

The flagship Hinduja Group company, which had parted ways with Nissan last year, is gearing up for the launch of its first lefthand drive vehicle in the LCV segment in January for sale in overseas markets.

The company expects overall export contribution to go up from the current five per cent to 20 per cent. With more than 80 per cent of the countries having lefthand drive option, this will be a major offering and is expected to boost sales.

Nitin Seth, President, Light Commercial Vehicles, Ashok Leyland, said, “We are working towards a larger game plan to increase our market presence and share in the LCVs. As a part of this plan, we will launch at least one new vehicle every 4-5 months.”

Referring to the market trend, he said there is a trend towards slightly bigger LCV in the range of 2 tonne and above as against those below that category, whose market has shrunk by about 50 per cent in the past 3-4 years.

Mentioning about the potential for LCVs, Seth said, “We need to look at the larger picture in terms of GST and its impact on warehouse.''

The commercial vehicle major has launched Dost + in the 2 tonne to 3.5 tonne category. The new LCV offers 18 per cent more payload, superior mileage and comes with additional warranty.

Seth said Dost + and Dost will co-exist, helping ALL to address a bigger pie in the LCV segment which has seen sales of over 4,50,000 units last year. This segment is poised to grow with logistics industry's focus on hub and spoke model, GST implementation and growth of the unorganised retail, ecommerce and related industries.

Since its launch about six years ago, Ashok Leyland has sold over 1.7 lakh Dost vehicles and the brand has been a big success. It will be offered in three versions with the top end version featuring air-conditioning, and power steering adding to driver comfort.