The Amby and its new French connection

The PSA Group’s recent move to acquire the brand rights of the Ambassador is intriguing in more ways than one.

What comes through loud and clear is that the French carmaker is not going to revive production of this iconic car brand which made its last bow three years ago.

This was the time its manufacturer, Hindustan Motors (of the CK Birla group), downed the shutters at the Uttarpara plant near Kolkata since producing this model was no longer viable.

Nobody was interested in the Ambassador with a new generation of buyers queuing up for more contemporary models.

PSA, which makes the Peugeot and Citroen brands, recently announced its intent to join hands with the CK Birla group and produce cars from the latter’s Tiruvallur facility near Chennai.

The Uttarpara plant will, however, continue to remain defunct which rules out any revival of the Ambassador model.

It is just the brand that will, in all likelihood, be associated with the PSA range for India (whether Peugeot or Citroen) scheduled to debut in 2020. The French group has remained mum on the issue, but is hoping to reach out to the Indian customer with a familiar brand that has been part of this landscape for six decades.

Will the strategy work? There is no question that brand recall for the Ambassador is intact but whether it is durable enough to woo buyers is the million-dollar question.

From PSA’s point of view, it perhaps makes sense to have a modern car from its stable sporting the association of a historical brand. It is a better bet for sure than reviving the Amby in its original avatar.

In the Indian auto space, there are other brands which have a similar kind of iconic status even though they are no longer around. The Chetak is one such even though it has been some years since its manufacturer, Bajaj Auto, exited the scooter space. It will be interesting to see if it stages a revival as an all-modern scooter even while Bajaj has reiterated that it will focus only on motorcycles.

The other big brand is the Premier Padmini which is on its last lap in the Mumbai taxi segment.

There are a few hundreds still chugging on the city roads but even these will fade into oblivion in the next couple of years.

Its manufacturer, Premier Automobiles, had a joint venture with PSA (which was then Automobiles Peugeot) in the early 1990s.

At that point in time, the PAL-Peugeot manufacturing plant was located in Kalyan near Mumbai.

This was formerly a Premier facility which was home to the then celebrated 118NE and its 1.38D diesel sibling.

These two brands became part of PAL-Peugeot when the facility was spun off into the new joint venture.

The French automaker produced its own 309 model at Kalyan, while resurrecting the 118NE as the Viceroy.

The joint venture went through its share of hiccups and Peugeot eventually slammed the brakes on its India outing and bid adieu.

The comeback with HM has some interesting parallels with the Premier joint venture of the 1990s.

Both business models had ready-to-use plants with the country’s oldest carmakers as partners.

The 118 NE was given a new makeover as the Viceroy but could not last its course when the plant shut down.

This time around, Peugeot will use the Ambassador association in its comeback plans where history will merge with modernity.

The actual Amby, which continues to be part of the Kolkata cab fleet, and its deserted West Bengal plant are now reminders of an era gone by.

COMMENT NOW