India’s oldest car brand Ambassador is back singing a new fuel-efficiency mantra. Hindustan Motors counts on its latest Ambassador model, with the fuel-efficient diesel engine, to jack up sales by a robust 14-15% next year.
“We target to sell at least 12,500 cars, where we sold just 11,000 units last year,” says Amar Singh Rathore, national sales manager, Hindusthan Motors. Tourist taxi segment has been finding it a value-proposition as the new model gives 16 km/litre mileage, as against 11 km/litre for the earlier model, Rathore claims.
Hindustan Motors’ share of India’s car market had shrunk to 7-8% recently. To retrive its market-share, the company has also thrown in a special promotional exchange offer for its three major markets, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Anyone who brings in an old Ambassador car will be given Rs 35,000 discount for the new car purchased.
The offer is open till August 14.
In Kerala and Tamil Nadu markets, the huge NRI population has shown a preference to buy Ambassador models for their aged parents resident in India,Goutam Roy, Marketing Manager, Hindustan Motors said.
It is the Kolkata plant of HM that rolls out the Ambassador fitted with petrol, diesel and compressed natural gas (CNG) engines. There are two variants – the 1.5-litre and two-litre engines – that meet BS2 and BS3 emission norms. The company had spent about Rs 6 crore to get its fuel-efficient engines going.