Ashok Leyland to unveil new range of trucks in 2010

Hinduja Group's heavy vehicle major Ashok Leyland today said it was working on developing an all-new full range truck platform, which would be introduced by 2010.

The company is also working on a new engine series, 'Neptune', which will replace its old version by 2013-14 in all it's new vehicles. The trucks would be in the range of 16 tonnes to 49 tonnes.

"The new truck platform 'Unitruck', reflects the universal scope and versatility to address the needs of domestic and global markets," Ashok Leyland Managing Director R Seshasayee told reporters here today.

The platform can create variants to meet different geographies, road and load conditions, different applications and legislative requirement.

Neptune, the six cylinder inline engine with capacity ranging from 4.7 litre to 8 litre, is Bharat Stage (BS) III and BS IV complaint, he said.

Seshasayee said that by 2013-14, they would be phasing out the older version and the new engine Neptune platform would be Incorporated in all the vehicles.

The drive train would feature a range of gear boxes with cost effective manual as well as automatic transmissions, he added.

Coupled with rear axles of a wide range of ratios, they can be optimised for performance and fuel efficiency to suit different duty cycles.