Ashok Leyland is one of the largest automobile companies. Now that Volvo, which specialises in transport buses and heavy commercial vehicles, has set up its plant in Bangalore — that is, in south India where you dominate — how do you plan to tackle them?
We are not worried about Volvo because the good thing about Volvo coming here is that it will create a kind of consciousness or awareness in the minds of Indian customers about what an international product is and what is available in the Indian market. The bad news for them is that we do not have an economic atmosphere supporting a high-priced product like that. Several features of it, like the high horse power engine, cannot be fully used because of our road conditions. Another thing is, a truck is used only 20 per cent of the time in India. Trucks stand idle during the remaining time. A very heavily priced equipment has to be used very heavily. Unless you remove all the obstacles like the checkposts and things like that from the road, you cannot use such trucks. For instance, Volvo trucks have a very sophisticated cabin for the driver. But our drivers do not normally live in such plush places. Due to this, I foresee a lot of difficulties for that product… But we are not unduly wor
