The Ashok Leyland Dost is a commercial success in the Indian market and over 50,000 Dosts have been sold in India till date.
We, and a lot of you Indian Autos Blog readers, were curious to know whether Ashok Leyland exports, or has any plans to export the Dost to other markets. So we put forth the question to Dr. V. Sumantran, Vice Chairman, Ashok Leyland.
Turns out, the Dost has already commenced exports sometime in February-March this year. Initially, the Dost is being exported to the SAARC nations. However, Ashok Leyland has further plans for exporting the 2.5T (GVW) light commercial vehicle and says that they are studying 3 additional export markets.
About 1,200 units of the Dost have already left India for these SAARC nations.
Dr. V. Sumantran said -
Typically we started with the SAARC and over time we will take it to the other markets. So far we have entered the SAARC and now we are looking at 3 other markets which we will announce in the next 2-3 months. About 1,200 units have been exported. The exports commenced sometime in the months of February-March this year.
As of April this year, Ashok Leyland says that the Dost has a market share of 19% in the 2-3.5T category. A passenger version of the Dost is also being expected.
