If you admired the Aston Martin Vanquish which James Bond drove in Die Another Day , then you must feel proud of the fact that it was designed by an Indian. So, Dilip Chhabria, who started off as an auto designer in 1993, is on his way to becoming a niche auto manufacturer.
Avanti
His firm DC Design, renowned in the industry for concept cars and prototypes, plans to raise around Rs 60 crore through debt and equity in the next three months to fuel the expansion plans of its sports-car venture, ‘Avanti.’
“We aim to become a niche car maker and hence we have launched Avanti, a luxury Indian sports-car. We are in talks with a few private equity players, both domestic and international. However, we want to create more value so that we dilute less,” Chhabria said.
Avanti would be the first sports car to be designed and manufactured in India. The car’s prototype has been showcased at the 11th Auto Expo last month and has been priced at Rs 25 lakh, Chhabria said.
“We already have got a good number of booking applications and plan to roll out 300 Avanti cars in the first year itself. It will be manufactured in the Talegaon facility early next year, and will be delivered around October next year. The reason behind making a sports-car was that none of the Indian auto makers have thought about its potential,” he said.
Annual production
DC Design already has three manufacturing units in Pune, with an annual production of just 500 cars per annum. The company plans to ramp up the number to 1,000 this year. At present, the company makes car accessories and also multi-ultility vehicles (MPVs), which range from Rs 6-60 lakh. However, the company declined to give out any other financial details.
Chhabria, who studied transportation design in California, used to customise vanity vans for Bollywood stars, and graduated to design and manufacture luxury cars for high networth individuals (HNIs). The company also plans to open its own outlets by this year-end .
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