Commercial vehicle major Ashok Leyland has posted its best-ever performance in the small commercial vehicle (SCV) segment during October 2018. Its Dost small commercial vehicle sold 5,022 units last month. Its previous best was in September when it sold 4,760 units. The segment share for the Dost stands at 17 percent for the year.
For the April to September 2018 period, the 2- to 3.5-tonne segment, where the Dost falls in, grew 17 percent YoY with sales of 134,133 units. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) leads the segment with a 62 percent market share. Tata Motors comes second with a 19 percent share, followed by Ashok Leyland with a 17 percent share. M&M and Tata Motors have multiple products, while Ashok Leyland has a sole product in this segment.
As a result of the growing demand for hub-and-spoke and last-mile deliveries, the Ashok Leyland Dost has been seeing a smart uptick in demand from across the country. In FY2018, the company sold a total of 39,865 units, which is a 31 percent YOY growth. In the first seven months of FY2019, a total of 27,874 Dosts have been sold, which means this small CV is driving towards achieving its best-ever sales in a fiscal.
The Dost, which debuted in September 2011, is the first SCV from the erstwhile Ashok Leyland-Nissan joint venture. After taking full control of the venture, the Indian OEM has expanded its LCV portfolio. With the growth of the hub-and-spoke delivery model, LCVs are set to grow further.