Dilip Chhabria led DC Design, an automotive design firm which offers standard customisations across existing car models, plans to sell its in-house designed 2000 DC Avantis by the financial year 2015-16. The firm launched the 2.0 litre Ford EcoBoost engine powered vehicle in January this year.
The DC Avanti has been designed by Chhabria's firm, and he plans to manufacture the vehicle at his upcoming facility at Talegaon in Maharashtra, where he is setting up a 2,000 units per annum plant. "At present engineering and tooling work on the car is on, and we plan to start manufacturing by August next year. The first car will be delivered by December 2013, and by March 2014 we will make deliveries of 300 cars", Chhabria says.
As the facility would also be scaled up gradually, car deliveries would also rise to 1000 DC Avantis in 2014-15, and 2000 DC Avantis by 2015-16. The car has been priced at Rs 30 lakh.
"It is a unique positioning at that price point, and a lot of young buyers of the age group 28-30 years are emerging as buyers. Several of them are airline pilots, and the DC Avanti has generated interest among customers from Sikkim to Ghaziabad", he adds.
The car has received franchise enquiries from overseas as well, Chhabria claims, but his firm is not planning sell the vehicle internationally as there are homologation issues.
Meanwhile, he is planning to expand his footprint nationally by opening 16 new dealerships within the next three months, that would also sell the DC Avanti apart from the standard customised offerings that his firm offers.
