Ashok Leyland is an automobile manufacturing company from India based in Chennai, India. It is owned by the Hinduja Group. Founded in 1948, it is the second largest commercial vehicle manufacturer in India, the fourth largest bus manufacturer in the world and the 12th largest truck manufacturer in the world. Operating nine plants, Ashok Leyland also manufactures spare parts and engines for industrial and marine applications. It sold about 1,40,000 vehicles (M & HCV + LCV) in fiscal year 2016. It is the second largest commercial vehicle company in India in the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment (M & HCV), with a share Of 32.1% (fiscal year 2016). With passenger transport options ranging from 10 seats to 74 seats (M & HCV = LCV), Ashok Leyland is a market leader in the bus segment. The company claims to have more than 70 million passengers a day, more people than the entire Indian rail network. In the segment of trucks Ashok Leyland concentrates mainly in the range of 16 to 25 tons. However, Ashok Leyland has a presence in the entire range of trucks, from 7.5 to 49 tonnes.
Optare, a British subsidiary of Ashok Leyland, has closed its bus plant in Blackburn, Lancashire. The traditional house of this branch in Leeds has also been vacated in favor of a purposely constructed plant in Sherburn-en-Elmet. Ashok Leyland was awarded the prestigious 2019 Deming Award for its Pantnagar manufacturing plant. The CV manufacturer's Pantnagar plant became the world's first truck and bus plant and the only CV manufacturer outside Japan to win the Deming Prize. The plant manufactures Dost's small CV and Partner LCV, a diverse range of buses, trucks and defense and special vehicles. The manufacturing capacity of the plant is 150,000 units per year.
On the road to world quality standards, Ashok Leyland reached an important milestone in 1993 when it became the first in the history of India's automobile to obtain ISO 9002 certification. The most complete ISO 9001 certification came in 1994, QS 9000 in 1998 and ISO 14001 certification for all vehicle manufacturing units in 2002. In 2006, Ashok Leyland became the first automobile company in India to receive the TS16949 Corporate Certification.