Ambassador, the iconic Indian car brand that till less than a decade ago carried both the Prime Minister and the common man, is being sold to French car maker Peugeot.
The C K Birla Group-owned Hindustan Motors formalized the deal for Rs 80 crore on Friday. Production of Ambassador cars had stopped around three years ago.
"We have executed an agreement with the Peugeot SA Group for the sale of the brand Ambassador, including the trademarks... We intend to use the proceeds from the sale to clear dues of employees and lenders," a CK Birla Group spokesperson said.
The car's absence of looks was never in doubt. But in an era of limited choices, the spacious four-wheeler was the preferred choice for most Indians who could afford it. Even today for many, the car remains synonymous with memories of their fonder and younger days and a marker of a more innocent India.
The Ambassador brand was introduced seven decades ago when Hindustan Motors launched the Morris Oxford series II (Landmaster) in a new avatar with minor changes.
It quickly became a national icon and continued to dominate Indian roads till the 1980s, when the Maruti 800 exposed its inadequacies.
From 24,000 units a year in the mid-1980s, sales slumped to less than 2,500 units in 2013-14.
Peugeot had a brief three-year presence in India in the mid-1990s when the Peugeot 309 was assembled and sold by PAL. Last year, Peugeot Citroen announced plans to re-enter India by 2018. The company had earlier this year formed a JV with CK Birla Group for the Chennai plant. The tie-up was to make use of the Hindustan Motors plant in Chennai as its production unit. The Chennai plant currently produces vehicles for Mitsubishi and has a capacity of manufacturing 12,000 units a year.
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