Ashok Leyland Dost passenger van to be called Dost Express

While the Ashok Leyland Stile, basically a badge engineered Nissan Evalia MPV, is still a couple of months away from an official launch and price announcement, the Indian utility vehicle major is readying up variants based on the Dost small commercial vehicle (SCV) platform. According to the EconomicTimes, the two new Dost variants said to be ready for a launch in the next month or so, are the Dost Express passenger van and the CNG powered version of the Dost mini pick up truck. 

The Dost Express passenger van will compete with the Tata Magic and the Mahindra Maxximo van. The 1.5 liter-3 cylinder turbo diesel engine that does duty on the Dost pick up is expected to be carried over to the passenger van variant. The Dost Express people mover will sit under the Stile MPV in terms of pricing and will be aimed mainly at semi-urban and rural pockets of India.

The Stile, on the other hand, will be aimed at the bigger cities of the country, with the CNG powered version being an important indicator of this fact as CNG dispensing infrastructure is available only in the bigger cities. The CNG powered version of the Dost mini pick up truck has been a regular sight for automotive spotters. The launch of the CNG powered mini pick up truck could boost volumes of the Dost, amid slowing down market conditions. 

The Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture, which has produced products such as the Dost range and the Stile, has deferred plans of a new factory at Sriperumbudur, off Chennai. Nissan will produce the Stile at the Renault-Nissan joint manufacturing facility at Oragadam while Ashok Leyland will continue using its Hosur factory for the Dost variants. The original plan was to set up a dedicated factory to manufacture vehicles under the Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture. 

This plan has been deferred for the second time (the first deferral came in 2009) on account of the difficult economic climate and slow demand. According to the new schedule, the greenfield production facility will go on stream from the first quarter of 2016, while the original plan was to begin production from the said factory in 2015. Once the facility is operational, the Dost variants would be produced from the new factory. In the meantime, Ashok Leyland plans to increase the number of dealerships selling its small commercial vehicle range.