Ashok Leyland ties up with Australian firm for clean fuel auto technology

Our Corporate Bureau
22 December 2006

Mumbai: Hinduja group company Ashok Leyland Ltd has signed an agreement with Australia's Eden Energy Ltd, for the supply of environment-friendly, hydrogen-enriched technology for its natural gas powered buses.

The 10-year hythane engine conversion and marketing agreement provides a major opening for Eden's patented hydrogen and natural gas fuel blend, Hythane to be introduced across tens of thousands of public transport vehicles in India.

The first set of Ashok Leyland engines have been sent to Colorado in the US for modification and demonstration trials, said Greg Solomon, executive chairman, Eden Energy. "India is a massive potential market with high public sector transport operations and high traffic pollution levels demanding redress across any number of large cities," he said.

Ashok Leyland currently manufactures more than 80,000 vehicles per year including 11,000-14,000 buses, and provides the majority of all metropolitan state transport buses in India carrying over 60 million passengers per day.

"The company is also a major manufacturer of trucks and defence equipment," pointed out Solomon. "Any successful test programme therefore leading to the commercialisation of Hythane provides Eden Energy with a tremendous base for its Indian operations, and the potential to expand into the truck, generator, locomotive, car, taxi fleet and three-wheeler auto-rickshaw markets."

Under the terms of the agreement, the 100 per cent owned Eden subsidiary, Brehon Energy PLC will through its US subsidiary, conduct the Hythane engine recalibration on the Indian engines at its test facilities in Colorado.