Ashok Leyland launches U-truck platform-based vehicles

Ashok Leyland 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.

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.

The trucks will come fitted with H-series engines with capacities ranging from 160 HP to 260 HP.

The U series trucks (named like ‘U 1618′ and ‘U 2523′ to indicate the tonnage and horsepower) will be marginally costlier (about 3 per cent) than the conventional trucks of corresponding capacity.

Two years from now, Ashok Leyland will bring in another bunch of products, which will be BS-IV-compliant and these products will come with a new cabin and the (higher powered) Neptune engine that the company is working on.