The West Bengal government has given a breather to the Hindustan Ambassador by allowing its BS3 diesel version to be sold in the state for six more months. The company had to stop sales of world’s longest running car a year after the BS4 norms came into place as it was not able to launch an upgraded version of the car.
Now Hindustan Motors expects a dramatic increase in sales of its diesel model especially to taxi drivers who make up a majority of their clientele. “Against 2,500 units of Ambassador that we sold last year, we expect to sell twice as many cars this year. Most of it will be to the taxi segment in Kolkata," said Uttam Bose MD and CEO of Hindustan Motors.
According to reports over 4,000 Ambassador diesel taxi cabs in the city are over 15 years old. This move will allow the cabbies to replace their vehicles. It remains popular among them as it is cheap to maintain, very spacious and can be repaired almost anywhere. It is expected that they will get the car at a discount thanks to a scrapage scheme.
Speaking on the introduction of a BS4 engine for the Ambassador, Bose said that the prototype engine will be tested in October. Thereafter, validated and standard operating procedures will take another couple of months.
