Ashok Leyland, world’s 4th largest bus manufacturer, joins LeadIT.
Ashok Leyland, an Indian multinational automotive manufacturer with ambitions to lead the transformation of road transport, hopes by joining LeadIT to accelerate its progress to net zero. The company’s membership was announced during a LeadIT event at the Baku Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP29).
Ashok Leyland is the second largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India and the fourth largest manufacturer of buses in the world. With headquarters in Chennai, the company has nine manufacturing plants in India, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. The company was founded in 1948, becoming Ashok Leyland in 1955 after collaboration with British Leyland.
Ashok Leyland aims to be a frontrunner within the automotive industry and is aiming to accelerate efforts to realize its stated ambition of carbon neutral operations by 2030 and net zero by 2048.
“A warm welcome to Ashok Leyland – the latest member of the Leadership Group for Industry Transition,” says Per Andersson, Head of LeadIT Secretariat. “Having Ashok Leyland and its ambition for decarbonization in LeadIT will add impetus to the entire group globally. It will strengthen the crucial work of the green transition in the sector of transport and its value chains in general and in the heavy vehicle segment in particular. It will be very interesting to follow and work with Ashok Leyland worldwide and in South Asia – together with our members.”
In February 2024, Ashok Leyland began construction of a new factory at Uttar Pradesh in India which will focus on producing electric buses. When complete, the company says that it will, within the next ten years, make 5,000 vehicles annually. Ashok Leyland has also recently delivered its first Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Bus, which will be used commercially on Indian roads for public transport.