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Out rolls another beauty from Hindustan's dressing room!

Lancer, the state-of-the-art upmarket sedan car manufactured by Hindustan Motors Limited in collaboration with Japanese auto giant Mitsubishi, rolled out of the company's Rs 3 billion 103 acre post-modern assembly line plant in Tamil Nadu's Tiruvellur on Friday.

Presenting the car to newspersons, HM executive vice-president R Santhanam said the diesel version of the car would cost Rs 830,000 in Madras city as against Rs 729,000 for the petrol version.

The prices at other places are Rs 834,000 and Rs 733,000 in Delhi, Rs 876,000 and Rs 770,000 in Bombay and Rs 860,000 and Rs 742,000 in Bangalore.

The car draws from the technical innovative designs of Mitsubishi. But the majority of its components, including the engine and gearbox, are being made at the HM units at Calcutta, Indore and Hosur. Some of the parts are being imported, Santhanam added.

He said the HM proposed to manufacture 5,000 cars by March 31, 1999, and hike the annual production figure to 24,000 cars in the next few years. The plant, for which the foundation stone was laid in April 1997, had started production in record time, he claimed.

Admitting that the car, with 1500 cc petrol or 2000 cc diesel versions, is targeted at the upmarket customers in the five metros and 25 small cities of the country, he said the HM's other products -- Ambassador, Contessa, Trekker and Okha - are meant to cater to the needs of customers in small cities, towns and rural areas.

Santhanam said his company benefited from a vast dealership set-up of red, blue and green networks for marketing and servicing to cater to the three segments of the auto market.

The recession in the car market was bound to go. Next year, the demand would go up to 450,000 cars, he predicted.

HM executive director A Sankaranayaranan said Mitsubishi and HM proposed to look for export opportunities for the Lancer in neighbouring countries.

UNI