Dc Design Unwraps Luxury Super Bus Lextran Orion

DC Design, the automotive design firm promoted by Dilip Chhabaria, has announced the launch of its super bus "Lextran Orion".

The company, which has a fully integrated manufacturing facility for bus bodies at Silvassa with a capacity to roll out ten bus bodies a month, plans to double its manufacturing capacity by mid 2002.

At present, the company claims, it has an eight per cent market share in the high-end luxury bus segment, which it plans to increase to 20 per cent in the next two years. While southern India has been traditionally a strong market for the buses, the company is planning to aggressively seek other markets in the country. The main target consumers are tour-bus operators, luxury hotels, resorts, inter-city fleet operators and corporates.

Dilip Chhabaria, managing director and chief executive, DC Design, said, "We operate in the high-end luxury segment and do not have any major competition as there are no original players in this segment owing to taxation anomalies. We plan to leverage our design and prototyping strengths at Silvassa to increase our market share substantially over the next two years. We plan to introduce new models, and backed by our domain knowledge and expertise we will be able to sustain our high growth."

The "Lextran Orion" has been designed at DC's own design center with the help of computer-aided styling and design facilities. The bus, which is built on the Ashok Leyland platform, has been designed using the latest technology and best software such as Alias/ Catia, Opticore and IDEAS.

The components of Orion have been developed through in-house digitising and class-A surfacing, which gives it a surface finish comparable to that of a passenger car. The bus has a steel tubular body with aluminum skin construction, Chhabaria said.

It uses matted 2K paint systems as a standard application and has proprietary lighting systems (developed in-house), which are highly detailed, complex and futuristic.

The bus has large panoramic winding glazing to give extended view to the passengers with a feeling of spaciousness; integrated, flushed and folding footsteps at front fascia, proprietary grab handles and locking systems for doors, body contoured head and tail lamps and chrome accents. It is equipped with large breathing grill fascia and has one large piece front windscreen. The bus also has unique doors with attributed ventilation assent.

DC Design is showcasing a range of futuristic products at the on-going Auto Expo at New Delhi. The company will be unveiling six new concepts during the show. On display will be "Infidel", a super sports car; "Single", a CBZ motorcycle; "Attractor", on the Mahindra Bhoomiputra tractor, "Prokit", on the Fiat Palio, E-Class Mercedes redesign and the "Lextran Orion" -- a 34 seater super bus on the Ashok Leyland platform.