The technology used for the car will be partly in-house and partly from a partner, said Ravi Santhanam, managing director of Hindustan Motors Ltd (HML).
He refused to give out further details. The prototype of the car, to launched before the Durga Puja, was ready. HM had to introduce new models as a part of its growth strategy, Santhanam said.
The other major engine of growth in the coming years would be the auto components business, he added. HML invested around one-third of its net projected outlay of around Rs 100 crore for modernisation of its auto components facility at Uttarpara.
Within a year's time, the entire manufacturing process would be upgraded, he added. Currently, the company manufactured around 200 different types of forgings together with over 300 types of stampings and more than six types of castings to almost all the major automotive original equipment manufacturers in the country. It had three new auto component brands, Autocast, Autostamp and Autoforge.
When asked if HM was looking at supplying components to the Tata Motors small car plant in Singur, Moloy Chowdhury, executive vice-president of HML, said options were open and dialogue was on. HM today launched its exchange scheme to buy back old Ambassador taxis plying in Kolkata against new Ambassador Grand BS-III compliant cabs offering mileage of 16 kilometre per litre (kmpl) as against 11kmpl of the old ambassador.
The scheme would be open from June 11 to July 15 along with discount of Rs 35,000 per car.
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After deducting excise of around Rs 17,000 on the offer price of Rs 3.12 lakh, buyers would pay around Rs 2.9 lakh per car. Ambassadors were priced from Rs 3.47 lakh onwards. The Ambassador grand had 5+1 split seating, factory-fitted air-conditioning and 5-speed gear box. HM claimed it enjoyed 25 per cent market share in the taxi segment nationally.
Of the 12,000 cars it sold per year, nearly 60 per cent were commercial taxis, while the rest went to private users and government agencies. Chowdhury said Ambassadors with sequential liquefied petroleum gaseous (LPG) injection engines would be ready in four months.
Few LPG cars got sold as availibility of autogas in West Bengal was a problem, Santhanam pointed out. To convert all taxis to LPG, the government had to support oil marketing companies to ensure distribution of autogas.