A new stile is set to hit Indian roads this Diwali

Ashok Leyland-Nissan  unveil multi-purpose vehicle Stile

Chennai:

The Hinduja Group flagship Ashok Leyland on Tuesday unveiled Stile, a stylish multi-purpose vehicle which will offer the Indian customer a global level of performance and comfort, here on Tuesday.

A joint venture between Ashok-Leyland and Nissan Motor, Stile is expected to hit the roads before Diwali and will be rolled out from Nissan’s manufacturing plant at Oragadam, near Chennai.

Top officials from Hinduja group, including G P Hinduja, co-chairman of Hinduja group, Dheeraj G Hinduja, chairman of Ashok Leyland, V Sumantran, vice-chairman of Ashok Leyland and chairman Ashok Leyland Powertrain along with chief executive officer of Nissan-Renault Carlos Ghosn were present on the occasion.

Interestingly, the vehicle is developed to address 7-8 seat people transport in the urban and rural areas, hotel shuttles, taxi services, ambulances, panel vans, inter-city and intra-city travel.

The launch also comes at a time when the auto sector is reeling due to global meltdown. But Ghosn feels while markets may be hit in Europe, India or Brazil, there has been growth in Africa, United States and other parts of the world. “The year 2015 would be the year of recovery for auto industry,” he said. He also said that the industry will continue to grow although not at the level it had grown earlier.

He said the joint venture was to to merge Ashok Leyland’s frugal engineering strengthens with Nissan’s world-class production methods; to expand the product offerings in the Light Commercial Vehicles segment, and to achieve synergies and cost savings that benefit Indian customers.

Interestingly, this is the third light commercial vehicle that  have been developed through this collaboration.  First was Ashok Leyland DOST, a 1.5-ton truck that was launched in September 2011 and produced at Ashok Leyland’s Hosur plant.  A year later, this was followed by the Nissan EVALIA, an Urban Class utility passenger vehicle built at Nissan’s Chennai Oragadam plant.  

Ghosn said that Nissan is planning to deliver 10 new models to India by 2016.  This product offensive includes the first car in the all-new Datsun line-up – the “Datsun GO” – which was unveiled on Monday in Delhi. “We also are continuing to grow our operations in India. Nissan Motor Company now has 12,000 employees nationwide,” he said.

G P Hinduja said that relationship with Nissan has been to strengthen Ashok Leyland’s product offering in the commercial vehicle space, particularly in the LCV range.

Interestingly, India is becoming a test-bed of global brands before the vehicles are being launched in developing nations. Stile will be available in both diesel and CNG versions, with a wide choice of seating options of two and three rows. The officials are yet to come out with the price list of the vehicle. “It will be priced as per the market needs,” said Sumantran.