HM to suspended Ambassador production
After 60 years, production of the Hindustan Motors Ambassador has been suspended. India’s first indigenous car maker announced that they will be shutting their factory indefinitely on May 24th to prevent the company from further bleeding the remainder of their resources. In a letter to the Bombay Stock Exchange, the company cited “very low productivity, growing indiscipline, critical shortage of funds, lack of demand for its core product and large accumulation of liabilities” as the reasons behind this move.
When Hindustan Motors started producing the Morris Oxford in 1957, they christened it the “Ambassador”. It went on to sell longer than any other car in the world. Over these past years, the Ambassador has played practically every role in the book. A taxi, a ministerial chariot, a family conveyance, it has even seen some track and rally action. On the downside, HM’s decision to keep the original, outmoded design almost certainly contributed to the downfall of the car in the private car market. The Ambassador has earned its place as a milestone in the Indian automobile industry. Despite its archaic styling, squinty-looking headlamps and crooked steering column, it is has a special place in every Indian’s Heart. It’s wide stance and cavernous interior was able to seat six in reasonable comfort, compared to the usual five for all other cars.
The Ambassador has come a long way in these sixty odd years. Starting with the Mark I, coined the land-master, which was essentially the Morris oxford and featured no changes in design aside from the HM badge. In 1963 it underwent a minor frontal facelift with a closely-chequered grille and was named the Ambassador Mark II. Incidentally, then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru received first Mark II in black. The most popular facelift of the ‘Amby’ as it fondly came to be called, came in in 1975 with the same grille and a significant frontal facelift, a new dashboard in black, new tail lights, a number plate light and rounded parking lights. This was followed by the Mark IV in 1979, the Ambassador 1800 ISZ in 1992 and the Ambassador Nova in 1999. After the millennium renovation project at the Uttarpara Plant, HM introduced the Ambassador Classic, Grand and Avigo. Meeting the BS IV standards required in metropolitan cities, the Ambassador Encore launched in 2013 and will be the last Ambassador coming out of the Uttarpara Plant if there is no revival for HM.
Experts in the industry say that Hindustan Motors stunted the growth of the Ambassador by not allowing it to evolve over time. Even the country’s bureaucrats, who previously sought the Ambassador as their vehicle of choice, have abandoned it for more modern vehicles. The company stated that sales have dropped from 24,000 cars a year in the 1980s to less than 6,000 in the 2000s. The beleaguered manufacturer also witnessed an all time low sales in the last financial year (2014) with a meager 2,214 units of Ambassador as compared to 3,471 units sold in the previous financial year (2013) with the factory only producing five cars a day.
