Ashok Leyland, which acquired the truck unit of Prague-based Avia and renamed it Avia Ashok Leyland Motors, is all set to bring its products to the Indian market within two years, R Seshasayee, managing director of Ashok Leyland, said.

"We are on target for bringing the Avia products to India. The work is on and we should get a product that gives value to the Indian customer at an affordable cost. We have been putting money into developing the product not only for the western European market but also for bringing the costs down to make it competitive," Seshasayee said.

The Czech company has a truck range of 6-12 tonnes and depending upon the gross combination weight with a drawer trailer it can go up to 22 tonnes. The products of Avia can be classified as intermediate commercial vehicles (ICVs), which are typically between 7.5 tonnes and 12 tonnes.

Ashok Leyland did not share details on where the production will take place, but industry experts said the concept and design will be by Avia and the manufacturing will be done in India. The engines and transmissions used by Avia are that of Cummins, which can be locally sourced in India. In order to be competitive the product will be a highly localised one.

In the ICV segment, Ashok Leyland has a share of about 3-5% and the leader is Tata Motors with a 48% market share followed by Eicher Motors with 38% share. Swaraj Mazda is also present with 7-9% share.

The truck plant of Avia Ashok Leyland Motors in Czech Republic has been incurring losses due to the fall in demand in Europe. "The sales have been very small but we have presence in critical markets. Also, we have an entire range of products which we are in a position to market. These will help us in scaling up in the European markets," he said.

The firm does not plan to make any significant investments in capacity expansion. Seshasayee said significant investments will be made in product development, IT infrastructure and expansion of the dealership network.

On setting up of a greenfield facility for its light commercial vehicle JV with Nissan, Seshasayee said that they have zeroed down on land but the acquisition is stalled due to litigation. Ashok Leyland has made some investments in re-tooling its existing facility in Hosur where for the time being the joint venture's LCV products will be manufactured.