Hindustan Motors has launched the BS4 compliant diesel Ambassador for the taxi market, called the Ambassador Encore. Bookings of the Ambassador Encore have started and the vehicle is priced at Rs. 4.98 lakhs (ex-showroom, Kolkata). The car is offered for the ‘no-refusal’ taxi segment and buyers who are in the replacement taxi segment will get massive reduction in the above price. The West Bengal government recently issued 2000 permits for the no-refusal taxi segment with another 2000 permits expected in November. The automaker is hoping to get good sales from the above buyers.
Sadly Hindustan Motors and the taxi buyers continue to remain in a different era altogether making statements about the Ambassador Encore which induce heavy laughter. Some words said about the car include “value engineering”, “better vehicle control with power steering”, “higher power and torque”, etc. If the Ambassador makes good amount of power and torque, why has the company refrained from stating the output figures in the press release? The 1.5-litre diesel engine outputs around 36 BHP of power and 73 Nm of torque, with power going to the rear wheels.
In April 2010, it became mandatory to sell only BS4 compliant vehicles in 17 metropolitan cities of India as BS3 car sales were banned there. However it has taken Hindustan Motors 3.5 years to upgrade the Ambassador from BS3 to BS4, which not only shows how slow they are but also re-iterates their poor engineering capabilities in these modern times. The company states it is ramping production to meet the surging demand for the Ambassador Encore. Whom are they fooling? Themselves or the investors in company?
