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Leading truck and bus marker Ashok Leyland has launched its new modular truck platform Avtr, powered by its own i-gen6 BS VI technology, which entailed a development cost of ₹500 crore.
Described by the company as a first-of-its-kind modular platform in the Indian commercial vehicle industry, Avtr will offer multiple options of axle configurations, loading spans, cabins, suspensions, and drivetrains on a single platform for the entire range of rigid trucks, tippers, and tractors in the 18.5 tonne to 55 tonne range.
“With Avtr, we will have a new range of trucks with better reliability and quality, and the new modular platform will allow us to go to many global markets, particularly left-hand drive markets. Avtr showcases global competitiveness of made in India products,” said Dheeraj Hinduja, Chairman of Ashok Leyland, during the digital launch of the new platform.
“It is a game-changing innovation and has the potential to deliver any kind of truck as per the customer’s specific requirement in a very short time. It is going to give our customers a huge advantage and, in turn, catapult us ahead of the competition,” said Vipin Sondhi, MD and CEO, Ashok Leyland.
Avtr will be available in 5-engine configurations, and its factories – Ennore and Hosur (Tamil Nadu) and Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) – have been made ready to produce these trucks.
The company said the new range of trucks build on the Avtr platform would be better in terms of the total cost of ownership.
“Avtr trucks will offer better fuel efficiency. It will be a robust choice for truckers. We have been seeding some of the vehicles from the AVTR range, with our select customers, and the feedback has been very encouraging,” said Anuj Kathuria, COO, Ashok Leyland.
Extensive tests
The new platform has undergone extensive tests on different terrains and application areas.
“For this, we built more than 100 prototypes, while trucks were tested for more 6 million kms across multiple application categories, said Chief Technology Officer, N Saravanan.
The company admitted that market conditions for CV were very tough, but the company wanted to go ahead with the launch of the new platform in preparation for the future.
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