The legendary Hindustan Motors (HM) Ambassador car is likely to ferry officials and representatives at the Commonwealth Games, scheduled for October next year.
Talking to FE, Hindustan Motors Limited managing director R Santhanam said he hoped to see the car named as the official vehicle for the Games. ?We are in talks with the government.
The Ambassador is an ambassador for the country,? he said.
The company has already readied the legend for the Euro-IV emission norms that kick in next year in 11 cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chennai, Surat, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Pune, Agra and Ahmedabad. The car is priced in the range of Rs 3.5 lakh – 5.5 lakh.
Santhanam had earlier talked about the revival of demand for Ambassador as a staff car in the government departments. He had also highlighted the preference Ambassador gets over other cars when foreign tourists visit Rajasthan and Kerala.
The car has been in the market since 1949 and continues to be a preferred by the government officials as well. According to industry experts, the reason why Ambassador is chosen over any other car by departments to ferry politicians and VIPs is that it can be easily armoured.
Santhanam was speaking on the sidelines of flagging off of The Great Driving Challenge in Mumbai wherein Hindustan-Mitsubishi Cedias would be driven by selected three teams covering 3,000 kilometre in over 12 days.
Asked about the company?s launch plans, Santhanam said, ?We will be launching a niche high-performance car from the Mitsubishi stable by the end of this financial year.? He did not divulge more details, except that the car would be priced way above Cedia. The new car will be made available as a completely built unit in the country.
From the Hindustan Motors? stable, the company would launch a new one-tonne mini truck in another 18-24 months.
The company recently launched HM Winner.
Talking about the company?s forging and casting business, he said there are plans to leverage the business as separate. ?We are making the business outward from inward.?
Santhanam, however, refuted any plans of the business being hived off as a separate company and stressed on making the contribution of this business significant enough to the overall revenues of the company.