Yahoo – AFP,
25 May 2014
 |
Indian holy
men load an Ambassador car with their belongings in
Allahabad on February 17,
2013 (AFP Photo/Sanjay Kanojia)
|
New Delhi
(AFP) - The maker of India's Ambassador car has suspended production, citing
debt and lack of demand for the iconic vehicle which came to define the
country's political class, a company official said Sunday.
Hindustan
Motors, India's oldest car maker, shut down its factory on Saturday at
Uttarpara in West Bengal state, where it has been making the Ambassador --
based on Britain's long-defunct Morris Oxford -- since 1957.
"Work
has been suspended indefinitely at the Uttarpara factory. It is being done to
ensure the company doesn't bleed more (money) and to enable us to draw plans
for its revival," the senior official told AFP.
The company
informed the Bombay Stock Exchange in a letter on Saturday, citing "very
low productivity, growing indiscipline, critical shortage of funds, lack of
demand for its core product ... and large accumulation of liabilities".
The
curve-shaped Ambassador, whose design has changed little in nearly 60 years,
once ruled India's roads and for years was the only car driven by politicians
and senior government officials, particularly in New Delhi.
The car's
"power status" allowed Islamist militants to drive an Ambassador past
security and stage a deadly attack on the parliament building in 2001, bringing
nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan to the brink of war.
But the
Ambassador, easily the most recognisable car on India's roads, has been muscled
out over the years by the entry of more modern vehicles, particularly SUVs
increasingly favoured by senior bureaucrats.
The car
still remains popular with taxi drivers, some politicians and tourists looking
for a bit of nostalgia on India trips.
The
country's once-booming car market has suffered a slump in recent years, with
the economy growing at under five percent deterring new customers.
The
Hindustan Motors official said Ambassador sales have long been falling, with
the factory recently churning out just five cars a day.
Sales have
dropped from 24,000 cars a year in the 1980s to less than 6,000 in the 2000s,
according to the Times of India on Sunday, which predicted the end of the road
for the "grand old lady" or "Amby".
"Had
HM (Hindustan Motors) continued to evolve the Amby over the past 60 years
without changing the DNA, it would have been the Rolls Royce of India," the
paper quoted India's leading auto designer Dilip Chhabria as saying.
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