Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles peeking into clean car industries and car manufacturers of China, India, South Korea and Germany. Please send comments and suggestions using our Contact page or by leaving a comment at the end of this article.

Ashok Leyland is one of India’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturing companies and is a part of the Hinduja Group. Ashok Leyland is based in Chennai, India and focuses mostly on the medium and heavy commercial vehicle segment of the market. Enjoying healthy market share and a full range of offers from 18 to 52 seater passenger transport buses, Ashok Leyland is on a steady run towards being a market leader. In fact, eight out of every ten state transport buses running across India are manufactured by Ashok Leyland. Of late, it has entered into a joint venture with Japan’s giant, Nissan as it tries to penetrate the Light Commercial Vehicle (LCV) market.

Among many other goals, Ashok Leyland aims to expand its operations to penetrate into overseas markets. Included in the company’s plans is to acquire smaller car manufacturers in China and in other developing countries. In fact, recently, it has acquired the Avia truck line from Czech Republic. Called Avia Ashok Leyland Motors s.r.o., this will give Ashok Leyland a channel into the competitive European market. According to the company, in 2008 the joint venture sold 518 LCVs in Europe despite tough economic conditions. Furthermore, the company will expand its product offers into construction equipment, following a joint venture with John Deere. Newly formed in June 2009, the John Deere partnership is a 50/50 split between the companies. The company says negotiation is progressing on land acquisition, and the production plans are in place. The venture is scheduled to start rolling out wheel loaders and backhoe loaders in October 2010.

Aside from the full expansion planned for the company, Ashok Leyland is also paying close attention to the environment. In fact, they are one of the companies showing the strongest commitment to environmental protection, utilizing eco-friendly processes in their various plants. Even as they thrust into different directions, Ashok Leyland maintains an R&D group that aims to uncover ways to make their vehicles more fuel efficient and reduce emissions.

In fact, even before laws were placed on car emissions, Ashok Leyland was already producing low-emission vehicles. Back in 1997, they have already released buses with quiet engines and low pollutant emission based on the CNG technology. In 2002 it developed the first hybrid electric vehicle. Ashok Leyland has also launched a mobile emission clinic that operates on highways and at entry points to New Delhi. The clinic checks vehicles for emission levels, recommends remedies and offers tips on maintenance and care. This work will help generate valuable data and garner insight that will guide further development.

When it comes to the development of environmentally friendly technologies, Ashok Leyland has developed Hythane engines. In association with Eden Energy, Australia, Ashok Leyland successfully developed a 6-cylinder, 6-liter 92 kW BS-4 engine which uses Hythane (H-CNG,) which is a blend of natural gas and around 20% of hydrogen. Hydrogen helps improve the efficiency of the engine but the CNG aspect makes sure that emissions are at a controlled level. A 4-cylinder 4-litre 63 KW engine is also being developed for H-CNG blend in a joint R&D program with MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) and Indian Oil Corporation.

The H-CNG concept is now in full swing, with more than 5,500 of the technology’s vehicles running around Delhi. The company is also already discussing the wide-scale use of Hythane engines with the Indian government. Hythane engines may be expected in the near future, but these may not be brought to the United States as yet.

Ashok Leyland’s partnership with Nissan is also focusing on vehicle, powertrain, and technology development listed under three joint ventures. With impressive investment, the joint ventures will focus on producing trucks with diesel engines that meet Euro 3 and Euro 4 emission standards.

In the coming years, Ashok Leyland also has some hybrid trucks and buses in store for its market. The buses and trucks are set to feature a new electronic shift-by-wire transmission technology as well as electronic-controlled engine management for greater fuel efficiency. Ashok Leyland focuses on improving fuel efficiency without affecting automotive power, and the vehicles will have a 5% improvement on fuel efficiency. Ashok Leyland is also developing electric batteries and bio-fuel modes.

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Ashok Leyland – Efficiency Innovations to India’s Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles is a post from: CleanCarTalk

July 8th, 2009 is the first anniversary of the Pickens Plan. T. Boone Pickens’ Pickens Plan aims to invest some 1 trillion dollars of his own money to build wind turbine farms for power generation. This in turn will free up the natural gas currently being used for power generation to be shifted to supplying CNG-powered trucks and heavy equipment, Mr. Pickens believes.

By doing so, he advocates, 22% of U.S. electricity needs will be provided by wind power in 10 years (under the right leadership,) freeing up natural gas for use in CNG vehicles converted from gasoline.

According to his website pickensplan.com,

America is blessed with the world’s greatest wind power corridor and abundant reserves of clean natural gas. The Pickens Plan will utilize these tremendous resources to build a bridge to the future – a blueprint to reduce foreign oil dependence by harnessing domestic energy alternatives and buying time for us to develop even greater new technologies.

To help further the Pickens Plan, today U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), and Senators Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Robert Menendez (D-NJ) announced new legislation that would boost vehicles that run on clean natural gas. The NAT GAS Act, introduced today by Menendez and co-sponsored by Reid and Hatch, would extend and increase tax credits for natural gas vehicles and refueling. T. Boone Pickens was also present at the NAT GAS Act announcement. Read more on the Senate Bill 1408, the NAT GAS Act bill.

While there have been some program setbacks, Mr. Pickens says his plan is on track. Here’s an interviewing of T. Boone Pickens on the status of the Pickens Plan, courtesy CNN.com.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfwCaik3Qh4

The Pickens Plan: Progress at the One Year Anniversary, July 8th the Energy Independence Day is a post from: CleanCarTalk