HM launches a new vehicle part-II

Continued from http://boyracer.blogspot.com/2011/08/hm-launches-new-vehicle.html

A recent article has caught my eye recently and I will be putting it down here. The reason why this article is important is because the author has taken the pains to provide some correct information which is not readily available.

The car with a made-in-Calcutta tag is going retro to stay relevant in the age of sleeker, stronger and speedier.

A team of 30 engineers is racing against time at Hindustan Motors’s new R&D centre in Uttarpara to rebuild the Ambassador into a city slicker with fashionably retro styling and a peppier engine under the bonnet.

Already late by a year, the retro Ambassador will finally hit the road in its hatchback and sedan versions next August. “We are going to relaunch the Ambassador on a new platform, and with a lot of technical changes, in the second quarter of 2012,” Prakash Jha, the managing director of Hindustan Motors, confirmed to Metro.

The Amby revamp project had been outsourced to the Pune-based Onio Design Pvt Ltd, which did the initial design and research for the retro car. “We have since taken over the project and have been working on it since last February,” said Sandhya Pande, head, Vehicle Strategies & Development. 

The new Ambassador will retain the monocoque platform that gave the vehicle its roominess. “We will also maintain its heritage look and iconic features,” Pande said. 

What will change are the engine, transmission and suspension sytems. The Ambassador will have a peppier engine of 1.5 litres and 1.8 litres respectively for the hatchback and sedan. While the company is due to launch a BS IV-compliant petrol engine for the current Ambassador by the end of this fiscal, the new Ambassador will have a CrDi engine (diesel motor) that is being sourced from Europe. 

The hatchback, the prototype of which is ready for tests, will be less than four metres in length to make it eligible for excise cuts. It is likely to be priced between Rs 3.5 and Rs 4 lakh, a company spokesman said. 

The entry-level sedan will offer C-segment luxury features like leather seats, a new retro-looking dashboard, Bluetooth and other gizmos. Safety features like ABS (anti-lock braking system) and EBD (electronic brake distribution) will be optional. Coming to the other car based on the new Ambassador, the retro Ambassador sedan will compete with the current crop of C-segment sedans with the 1.5 Liter CRDI diesel engine and the 1.8 Liter BS4 petrol engines powering it. While the common rail turbo diesel engine is being developed from scratch, we hope that the 1.8 Liter Isuzu petrol unit gets more than just a BS4 certification compliance, as it isn’t exactly known for its frugalness, one factor which is the need of the hour in India. The C-Segment Ambassador sedan will have a host of new features like ABS, EBD and leather seats to add to the luxury quotient.

“The Ambassador is known for its product life cycle, safety and robustness. When the state government was phasing out commercial vehicles 15 years and older, we had 20-year-old taxis on the road. Tell me, which vehicle has such a long running life?” demanded managing director Jha.

The current model of the Ambassador is based on the 1950s Morris Oxford III. The UK-based Morris Motor Company, of course, discontinued the model about 50 years ago. 

Hindustan Motors has often been accused of being reluctant to adapt to newer technologies. Automobile designer Dilip Chhabria, who created the Rs 4.4-crore Amberoid that was inspired by the Ambassador, said: “It is an uphill task for the company (to revive the Amby). Apart from some very timid efforts, they haven’t done anything to it for decades. Being an icon is what has powered Amby sales since 1950s. I believe the company should treat it the way Porsche has treated the 911 and BMW has treated the Mini.” 

The Ambassador sold 8800 units in 2009-10, but and the figure dwindled to 6,700 units in 2010-11. The retro Amby is, therefore, Hindustan Motors’s last-ditch effort to revive this iconic passenger car that ruled the roads through the sixties and seventies till the Maruti 800 changed the way people drove in India.

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110811/jsp/calcutta/story_14357767.jsp
By- Anasuya Basu