Hindustan Motors shuts down its car factory

After wooing car buyers for close to 60 years, the grand old lady of Indian roads has finally hung up her boots. Hindustan Motors (HM), India’s oldest car manufacturer and the makers of the grand Ambassador has recently informed Bombay Stock Exchange in a letter stating that, due to very low productivity, shortage in demand for its cars and critical shortage of funds the company has decided suspend work at its Uttarpara (West Bengal) facility indefinitely. The letter further states that this drastic step has been taken to ensure that the company doesn't bleed more money and to enable HM to draw plans for its revival.

The Hindustan Motors Ambassador, fondly known as Amby, was being produced at the company’s Uttarpara factory since 1957; and was originally based on UK’s Morris Oxford. The Ambassador is still a common site on Indian roads, and perhaps everyone born before the 1990s would have some fond memories associated with the iconic car. Till recently, the Hindustan Motors Ambassador was the symbol of power and was owned by almost every active politician of the country.

Over the years, as international players started to venture into India, the aging Ambassador couldn’t keep pace with their modern cars models. Neither did the company try to revive the model by giving it a major makeover, nor did it introduce more competitive cars. The annual sales nose-dived from 24,000 units in the 1980s to about 6,000 in the new millennium, and the all time low of sub-2,000 in recent times. The numbers only came from the top brass of bureaucrats, and from West Bengal where the Amby was still preferred to be used as taxis in large scale.

Sadly, this is the end of the legendary car that once ruled the Indian roads.