Hindustan Motors in currently talking to various global automobile firms to set up a joint venture at its Chennai plant. As a part of its restructuring strategy, the company is diverting its Chennai plant for it to be used by some other company.
The company’s Chennai plant currently manufactures cars under license from the Japanese firm, Mitsubishi. Hindustan Motors was keen to increase joint venture partnerships with the selected company which would start manufacturing there. Talks are in an advanced stage and something would be decided within the current financial year. The company incurred huge losses by selling the Japanese cars as the sales didn’t happen as expected. The Outlander and the Cedia was discontinued for the very same reason, hardly any sales.
Hindustan Motors continues to manufacture the Ambassador at its plant in West Bengal, which is also the home market for this iconic car. The Ambassador was recently updated with a BSIV compliant version and is on sale in some markets in India. Currently, the Hindustan Motor’s plant is utilized by Izusu which assembles the MU-7 and the D-Max vehicles there. But Isuzu will soon shift to their new plant near Chennai where it has invested over Rs 3,000 crore. Once this happens, Hindustan Motors factory will be left unused and that won’t be financially feasible for a company that is battling some difficulties.
