Ashok Leyland showcases New iEGR Technology to combat BS-IV Emission Norms

The Intelligent Exhaust Gas Recirculation (iEGR) technology improves emissions compliance and will help the company to convert its BS-III inventory into BS-IV cost effectively.

Ashok Leyland, the 2^nd largest commercial vehicles manufacturer in the country, showcased its entire gamut of future-ready products based on Intelligent Exhaust Gas Recirculation (iEGR) technology along with digitally empowered services at its annual Global Conference 2017 in Chennai on April 21, 2017. While enabling the company’s products to be compliant with BS-IV norms, the iEGR tech has also helped the company tackle the challenges faced by companies due to the abrupt discontinuance of BS-III vehicles. Let’s dig deeper into the impact it has had and can have.

While other manufacturers were offering their vehicles at heavy discounts to clear their BS-III stock, Ashok Leyland asked its dealers to stick to its premium pricing. At that moment, this didn’t seem like a particularly wise move and the company was left with 10,000 BS-III units. In comes iEGR - a technology the company had been working since the last four years and now everything begins to make sense. So what exactly is iEGR all about?

Simply put, it’s a technology that has helped the company replace the BS-III engine with a BS-IV unit. And the cost of this exercise is just INR 20,000 per vehicle. As pointed out by Vinod Dasari, CEO & MD, Ashok Leyland, these BS-III engines can then be sold in the aftermarket for around Rs 1.4-1.5 lakh. Putting two and two together, this is definitely a more profitable proposition than going for discounts on BS-III stocks. Ashok Leyland is the only domestic manufacturer to implement this technology for its products above 130HP. However, Dasari stayed tight lipped about the technical details of iEGR, declaring he wanted it to stay a trade secret and hence, Ashok Leyland won’t file a patent for the same. While other methods like Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) offer better fuel efficiency, iEGR claims to be easy to operate, hassle-free to maintain and has a lower overall running cost.

Along with this, Ashok Leyland also showcased its future-ready services and network infrastructure. In the recent past, the company has rapidly expanded its network and now has 1000 touch-points with an additional 5000 outlets for Leyparts, its spare parts arm. The Ley Assist app is also a testament to how the company is prepared to tackle the future. The app enables CV owners to diagnose the problems via Bluetooth on their mobile devices. It then identifies the issues and provides a guided troubleshooting procedure.

Speaking on Tata Motors taking over the 1st position in the buses sector, T Venkataraman, senior VP, Global Buses, Ashok Leyland, said, “It largely happened because of the way we approached the BS-III to BS-IV transition. We didn’t want our dealers to take a hit. We decided to hold our sales without discounting and focused on giving value to our dealers. And hence, in the last month, in the last six hours, we lost the No. 1 spot.” Venkatraman also said that the company will come out with various staff as well as tourist buses based on the platform of the successful Sunshine bus this year. As far as challenges are concerned, he pointed out how safety is compromised for making cost effective vehicles. It is especially alarming to see even school buses giving safety features a miss. And to tackle the same, the Sunshine is rollover compliant, frontal crash proof and also has germ-proof seats.

Earlier, the MD and CEO, Vinod Dasari, had mentioned there would be a new LCV every quarter. Speaking on the same, Nitin Seth, president, LCV, said, “For the first two-three years, we will be enhancing the three existing platforms through various variants. Although, going forward, by 2020, you can expect newly developed platforms to fill in the existing gaps in our LCV portfolio. The current platforms will, however, continue to exist.” Seth also pointed out the paradigm shift in focusing on global sales, which, as a part of the joint venture with Nissan, they weren’t allowed to market in. But now that the company has acquired the Nissan-Ashok Leyland LCV JV, it will target one-third of its sales coming from the global market. However, the impending problem that even though isn’t the direct concern of the company but can indirectly affect it is the lack of drivers in the CV sector. With cab aggregators providing lucrative deals to drivers, obviously there are very few who volunteer to drive these heavy machines.

All in all, the Ashok Leyland Auto Expo, if we might call it that, showcased the new paradigm shift the company is undergoing aided by pioneering technology. But it insisted that all the technological advancements haven’t been included just for the sake of it but were actually relevant to the Indian customer. In accordance with the same, the CEO also pointed out how the company’s products are least electronically equipped yet technologically robust and relevant in the Indian context. But that doesn’t mean the company isn’t focusing on global sales. The aggressive approach to the LCV market is testament to the same.

We would like to thank our guest editor Kanaad Chatterjee for the coverage.