VOLVO EYES ON INDIAN AUTO GIANT

Volvo, The ultimate name for safety in vehicles, Volvo Buses is today the market leader in India for luxury, air-conditioned express coaches.

Ashok Leyland, an Indian manufacturer of commercial vehicles headquartered in Chennai. Ashok Leyland is a $ 1.348 billion company established in 1948, has markets in India and exports mainly concentrating on Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and the Middle East. Ashok Leyland started as Ashok Motors, which assembled Austin cars.

The news Volvo is interested in Ashok Leyland is a superb one. It is about to bring a vast changes in the automotive sector of India. The main point in the agenda of Volvo is to try the untapped developing markets, for which they need an excellent partnership with a local major. Ashok Leyland had been the name for trucks in India since its launch. Can this be compared to the joint venture that earlier existed between the Mercedes and Tata motors? Will this be equally beneficial to both the parties? Just analysing the situation, we get the following answers.

The advantages for Ashok Leyland are,
v It will get the new technology from the truck giant
v The safety superiority for Volvo can be brought in to play by Ashok Leyland
v The foreign market can be tracked by Ashok Leyland
v This can be a stepping stone for the global operations of Ashok Leyland

The advantages for Volvo are,
v It can access the distribution and infrastructure of Ashok Leyland
v It can also expand its operations, which is a basic gain
v The Volvo can do its operations much efficiently using the bulk production capability and low cost of production of Ashok Leyland

Anyway, if this venture is going to happen it will be a great advantage for the automobile sector in India and can attract many such major MNCs coming to Indian soil. The talks are going on and we cannot have a conclusion before the project is happening.