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Hindustan Motors plans two model launches
New Delhi, Oct 21: - Hindustan Motors Ltd, one of India`s oldest car companies, will launch a new top-end car and sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the next 18 to 24 months, a top company official said on Tuesday.
New Delhi, Oct 21: - Hindustan Motors Ltd, one of India's oldest car companies, will launch a new top-end car and sports utility vehicle (SUV) in the next 18 to 24 months, a top company official said on Tuesday.
Calcutta-headquartered Hindustan Motors makes the vintage-looking Ambassador car, the Lancer sedan and the Pajero SUV in collaboration with Japan's Mitsubishi Motor Corp.
A car market leader until the mid-1980s, it has since lost out to foreign carmakers which entered the domestic market with smaller, cheaper and more efficient vehicles.
"We are looking at two new products, a D-segment car as well as another in the SUV category," G. Shyam Sundar, Hindustan Motors' vice-president, told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference to launch a limited edition of the Lancer.
"We are looking at two new products, a D-segment car as well as another in the SUV category," G. Shyam Sundar, Hindustan Motors' vice-president, told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference to launch a limited edition of the Lancer.
Large family sedans priced between 1.0 to 2.5 million rupees ($22,060-55,151) belong to the D-segment, which include models like the Toyota Camry, Hyundai's Sonata and the Honda Accord.
Sundar said the new model could be assembled from knocked down kits at its Madras plant, where the Lancer is produced, if the numbers justified it or it would be imported as completely built units.
India's D-segment has seen a string of new model launches in the past year, although the segment accounts for only about two percent of new car sales of over 700,000 units a year, or 20,000 units.
Sundar said Hindustan Motors is also considering introducing the 2004 model of the Pajero SUV but did not say whether this was the new SUV model it planned to launch.
The automaker also announced a price cut of the low-end version of the Lancer sedan to 650,000 rupees from 720,000 rupees in a bid to reverse a sales decline.
Lancer sales have fallen 20 percent in the first half of this fiscal year to 2,000 cars, hit by the launch of new contemporary models like the Toyota Corolla and the Chevrolet Optra in the past year, company officials said.
The price cut will allow the Lancer to be positioned as a high performance, affordable car rather than a status vehicle, a tag it had worn since its launch in 1998, officials added. HM said it expected to sell 5,000 Lancers in fiscal 2003/04. Bureau Report
A car market leader until the mid-1980s, it has since lost out to foreign carmakers which entered the domestic market with smaller, cheaper and more efficient vehicles.
"We are looking at two new products, a D-segment car as well as another in the SUV category," G. Shyam Sundar, Hindustan Motors' vice-president, told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference to launch a limited edition of the Lancer.
"We are looking at two new products, a D-segment car as well as another in the SUV category," G. Shyam Sundar, Hindustan Motors' vice-president, told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference to launch a limited edition of the Lancer.
Large family sedans priced between 1.0 to 2.5 million rupees ($22,060-55,151) belong to the D-segment, which include models like the Toyota Camry, Hyundai's Sonata and the Honda Accord.
Sundar said the new model could be assembled from knocked down kits at its Madras plant, where the Lancer is produced, if the numbers justified it or it would be imported as completely built units.
India's D-segment has seen a string of new model launches in the past year, although the segment accounts for only about two percent of new car sales of over 700,000 units a year, or 20,000 units.
Sundar said Hindustan Motors is also considering introducing the 2004 model of the Pajero SUV but did not say whether this was the new SUV model it planned to launch.
The automaker also announced a price cut of the low-end version of the Lancer sedan to 650,000 rupees from 720,000 rupees in a bid to reverse a sales decline.
Lancer sales have fallen 20 percent in the first half of this fiscal year to 2,000 cars, hit by the launch of new contemporary models like the Toyota Corolla and the Chevrolet Optra in the past year, company officials said.
The price cut will allow the Lancer to be positioned as a high performance, affordable car rather than a status vehicle, a tag it had worn since its launch in 1998, officials added. HM said it expected to sell 5,000 Lancers in fiscal 2003/04. Bureau Report