By Adeniyi Onifade
Ashok Leyland, the flagship Company of the Hinduja Group, along with Stallion Motors, its exclusive distributor in Nigeria for over a decade, recently in Lagos launched what it calls Phoenix, which is its latest light commercial vehicle meant for general-purpose use in the Nigerian automobile market.
The Stallion Motors, in a statement, explained that the exclusive national partnership with Ashok Leyland has evolved with time to bring the best-in-class products and services to the Nigerian consumer.
According to the Company, these commercial vehicles are assembled locally and are best engineered for the road severity in Nigeria and also for the purpose of generating employment.
The Managing Director of VON Automobiles, Dr. Harpreet Singh, stated that the launch of Phoenix, the light commercial vehicle from Ashok Leyland, adds to the range and shows the Company’s renewed commitment towards bringing tough dependable and durable vehicles for logistics use in an affordable range to Nigerian vehicle buyers and users.
The Company has sales and services outlets in Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan and Port Harcourt, and has invested in state-of-the-art central auto parts and a service centre at Orile in Lagos, with a view to supporting the distribution of genuine spare parts across the nation for the upkeep of these new vehicles.
Commenting on the launch, the Head Africa-International Operation at Ashok Leyland, Sachin Dasharath, said Nigeria is an important African market for Ashok Leyland. The Company envisages that the new range of fully built trucks will sport a contemporary design, a new-generation platform, and will also offer best-in-class efficiency, performance and comfort.
“Reinforcing our brand promise of ‘No Dream too far’ we are offering Phoenix what will provide the best Total Cost of Ownership to our customers,” said Dasharath.
According to the manufacturers, the key attributes of Phoenix are vehicle performance, customer profitability and driver comfort. Packed with superior mileage, load-carrying ability, stability and manoeuvrability, Ashok Leyland says the Phoenix helps to run the business with a better return on investment.
It also added that the Phoenix offers class-leading comfort that sets the benchmark in the commercial vehicle industry, and that the dashboard is ergonomically designed with the controls placed intelligently.
The vehicle also comes with multi-angle adjustable seats and the steering column comes with tiltable and telescopic movements, while the two-point suspended cabin offers comfort and convenience.
In the words of Dasharath, “our aim in the international markets is to add more products to our portfolio and offer innovative and comprehensive solutions to our global customers. Experience a new class of LHD vehicles from Ashok Leyland.”