Ep. 36 World Tour: The History of the Indian Car Industry

Welcome to another part of the world tour series! This episode gives a quick and general overview of the history of the Indian car industry. What were companies like Tata, Maruti and Hindustan Motors up to back then?
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Enjoy!

[@tomanderson6335]

Great video, though I'm surprised there was zero mention of Tata buying Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford (and still owning them) as a sort of illustration of Indian independence having kinda come full circle.

[@rahulsudhir666]

They were on the verge of letting go of JLR about 2 years ago if I remember correctly due to the huge losses they were incurring at Jaguar. Land Rover seems to be doin pretty well though n good to know they're abit more reliable under TATA's ownership. I was hoping to see some RR bits trickle down to the Tata range but nothing significant yet apart from a few LR Discovery/Evoque interior components finding its way into the Tata Harrier. Similarly, Mahindra owns the legendary Pininfarina. So again we expected some revolutionary improvements in their lineup but we've sadly got *NONE*! They'd done this mad ad campaign n created alot of hype that they were coming out with a vehicle inspired by a shark/great white. I genuinely thought that we were gonna see a half decent sportscar or sedan/coupe considering sharks are known to be aggressive n nimble. *Oh, how I was so freakin wrong!!!* The "car" in question when revealed was an ugly ass soccer mom car with a sharkfin antenna like you'd find on most BMWs! 🤣💀

[@ananddarnal6702]

🤦

[@adykakroo]

Hindustan Moter's Ambassador and Contessa is back as an Electric Vehicle soon in 2024!

[@rahulsudhir666]

@@adykakroo It's just gonna be an attempt at using the sentimental aspect n nostalgia factor. Most likely will not go well for them n they'll once again disappear into the history books

[@adykakroo]

@@rahulsudhir666 what happens if it goes well for us

[@markfrommontana]

An amazing journey. I spent a fair amount of time in India on business during the early 1980s and it seemed that 90% or more of the cars in the country were either Premiers or Ambassadors. And Bangalore was still a few years away from becoming the Silicon (Hills) of India. Times have changed!

[@yeshwantdasari2075]

i grew up in india from 2009-2019 and honestly i feel this period and the mid 1990s was one of the most crucial periods in the indian automotive industry. the mid 1990s was the economic boom in the country allowing car companies to flood in, and while most did, they didnt really try. GM for example tried to market the opel astra sedan as a luxury car which failed, Ford was charging near C-Class money for a mondeo which ofc failed, while companies like hyundai succeded with the Santro and Accent which were honest cheap cars. and the mid 2010s shifted the market from people wanting the cheapest car with the biggest space to cars with actual tech and safety, like the jump from the Tata Indica (a terrible blobby car in all right that drove like a log rolling down a hill but was spacious and cheap) to the Tata Tiago which was lightyears ahead in safety, tech and styling), and thanks to the internet, indians realised what they were missing from the rest of the world in terms of sporty cars in general. As evident by the suprising sucess of the Ford Mustang, which was pretty good value for a big V8 Cruiser. Hot Hatches (well "hot") like the Tiago JTP and the loved Polo TSI proved indians can make genuinely great drivers cars. hell even genuine sports cars like Porsches and Ferraris became common place now thanks to the rise in despoable income for young rich people. and now even EVs are becoming a household name there. as you said the market really has changed and for the better!

[@dorientjewoller113]

And when and where did India became the scam country of the planet?

[@davidhollenshead4892]

The Ambassador could survive bad roads, which was the reason for it's long term success: The problem was the quality kept dropping due to warn out tooling... Now that India has discovered that gravel roads are so much better than unimproved dirt roads, an obsolete RWD British design intended for cobble stone roads is no longer necessary... [Hint, India still needs a design for bad roads like a Lada Riva Wagon with a more efficient engine like Egypt made, as cars designed for the CCCP were designed to work even if they were not maintained...]

[@BigCar2]

Nice! Now all I need to do is make a video about the Hindustan Ambassador. Oh, wait...

[@ShubhamMishrabro]

😂😂

[@adisura9904]

💀

[@patrickkenlock6778]

Back in the 1950/60s my father was tasked by Vauxhall, through GM with bringing Hindustani motors up to modern production standards, he had many amusing stories such as the cars were coming off the production line as if they had 150,000 miles as the tools used to create the gears, hone the bores etc were all worn out! I think he helped.

[@Namburiadityasairam2605]

Well he must've tried the best he could because no one could save Hindustan motors from itself 😂

[@haweater1555]

This happens when a country buys old production tooling for a car and continues to use it for many years. The huge stamping dies to make sheet metals parts only have a set number of cycles before they are worn out and should be replaced. If they are never replaced, the parts they make will be more and more inaccurate and off-spec. Leading to assembly line workers having to hammer and pound parts together to try to get them to fit.

[@aarsh1902]

@@rnayabed lol...India was never poor at first its gdp during Akbars reign was way ahead then the likes of Japan, US, China....just behind the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and India. It was during the British invasion and thier evil intention to rob and loot us as a country, puts us where we actually are today, and moreover what they did during sepoy mutiny was always ridiculous and forever will be for which India is still burning within.

[@arjunarun3033]

@@rnayabed It is because India was richer than the entirety of europe before that. Got looted to shit

[@KurianfromIndia]

​@@arjunarun3033 Well we never existed actually until Brits created British Raj. And my state Kerala was not under British rule even tho Malabar aka North Kerala was under Madras Province.

[@claudiobizama5603]

I'm from Chile and Suzuki cars were imported from the Indian Maruti Suzuki since the 80's. The 800 simply became the "Suzuki Maruti", and it was highly popular as it was the cheapest new car here. The Super Carry was also imported from there. Since then most Suzuki cars are initially built in Japan but later models are built in India.

[@tomaszproblem2684]

We also got the 800 in Poland.

[@M3ganwillslay]

Maruti Suzuki Baleno is the world's car now

[@alansandybay]

India is technically the second home of Suzuki. Although it is from Japan

[@alansandybay]

@@M3ganwillslay haan didi check the stats. Nearly 50% sales. May be you did not watch the video

[@alansandybay]

@@M3ganwillslay Not all Indians are hindus And l do believe in Jesus Christ the King son of man.

[@DavidBugea]

As a Suzuki Samurai owner in the US, I’m thankful that Maruti built its version - the Gypsy - until 2018, which means that parts are still readily available. The quality is sometimes not quite as good as OEM parts from Japan, but they’re often indistinguishable from the originals.

[@axel3895]

Indian army loves gypsy. It's the best car for beat up roads or no roads of Himalayas that's why they produced it till 2018.

[@metalrattle7357]

Yes David you can get any of its spare parts.

[@rahulsudhir666]

Gypsies are still highly sought after here in the rally raid scenes. Hence they have a rather cult following. A friend's dad owns about 7 of em. One left rather stock n the remainin built to go rallying. They did pretty well in the desert dunes of Rajasthan as well as the rocky terrain of the Himalayas

[@arjunarun3033]

@@axel3895 Indian army BARELY uses the gypsy and there is sure as hell no love for that trashcan

[@jayeshmonlbs]

You may be getting mgp(maruti gwnuine parts) instead of Suzuki

[@VoltTackle11]

There was also one tiny Indian EV in the 2000s, which also sold in UK... the REVAi (aka the REVA G-Wiz). It was pretty cheap for an Electric Car, but also very slow (about the same top speed of many French License-Free vehicles at the time) and had ridiculously low battery range due to the use of lead-acid batteries. Aside form that, their native brands are pretty impressive even though they lack in global presence. However Mahindra's Roxor became the first Indian SUV in the USA despite being classified as a Side-By-Side in the market due to conflicts with Chrysler's Jeep Division over initial design.

[@Bhaidostyaar]

It wasn't classified as a SxS bcz of the lawsuit, it was due to the old and unsafe design of it (ofc it was just an old willys jeep using willys parts and a 1950s design)

[@rahulsudhir666]

I know someone who threw out all the awful electric bits n stuffed a tuned Hayabusa motor in the back. The thing is maniacal. You can find clips of it here on KZbin. Almost shat ma pants when I was taken for a spin. Basically felt like a bigger go-kart. It's a death trap but I freakin loved it 🤣

[@mg1721]

reminded me of top gear

[@gats7]

That's a great compilation Ed. Few key cars missed here are Premier 118NE based on your favorite FIAT 124 with Nissan engine. Contessa Classic by HM based on Vauxhall VX Series with Isuzu engine. Standard 2000 based on based on Rover SD1. last but not the least Rover Montego by Sipani motors. Keep it up

[@kitko33]

Someone tried to sell those Premier 118NE models in CzechoSlovakia in the early 90s trying to capitalize on the fact that Russian Ladas, popular in CzechoSlovakia in the 1970-80s, that itself was a FIAT 124 license :)

[@obywatelcane6775]

@@kitko33 Something like a Lada + Indian build "quality" - it couldn't work.

[@Namburiadityasairam2605]

@@obywatelcane6775 one key advantage tho was these premier 118NEs came with a Nissan engine instead of the anemic russian improvement of the old fiat engine, making them much better to drive.

[@hrvojeprebisalic9302]

@@kitko33In 90s,was Czech republik,and Slovakia, no more Czechoslovakia.

[@bitelaserkhalif]

Standard 2000 is said to be failure. Engine is too old, it's not even original sd1 engine. Underpowered and inefficient.

[@wishdj]

You missed Tata's joint venture with Mercedes manufacturing E class in the mid 1990s. Also Tata owning Jaguar and Land Rover. Currently all major manufacturers including Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Japanese and Korean companies assemble cars in India for the Indian market. Mercedes C, E, S class, Audi A4, A6, Q5, Q7, BMW 3, 5 series, X1 are all assembled in India.

[@Elijah-cy9do]

But all the aforementioned cars are assembled in India, not manufactured, but he did point out that many foreign companies came back and did business and manufacturing in India

[@gone.but.forgotten]

We actually own a 1996 Mercedes E220 assembled by Tata. It’s a great car

[@charlesmoss8119]

I did some work with Tata back in the early 00’s and was a bit shocked at what was accepted as a good product - masses of pride in products that were not very good. I asked someone senior about this and they explained that in a place with very few cars and where few drove, there was little opportunity for comparison! Now with the car becoming common there is that opportunity for comparison and it was great to see that India is reaching its rightful place as competition drives auto makers to improve - it has always amazed me how government control in automotive market entry always seems to backfire - so brilliant that India is now coming forward.

[@NoobOnFarm]

Tata actually learnt about that the hard way. Just after the year 2000, there was a mass influx of foreign cars such as better Suzuki, Hyundai, vw , ford etc. and the sales of Tata motors dropped hard, really hard. From 2010-2017 Tata had a negligible market share, but the good thing Tata worked really hard to revamp their products and now has a good position in the market.

[@telcobilly]

Government is a haven for the incompetent and corrupt..

[@adisura9904]

Hopefully some hypercars coming out soon. Check out Vazerani Shul and ekonk. TATA came out with a concept called Racemo but development costs led to them axing or shelving the project. Mahindra now own Pininferina, so I hope to see them enter the hypercar/supercar market soon too. Indian bike scene is also pretty good but just like cars, we usually make bikes too for avg people mostly so they top at 400cc except the Royal enfields. Which have 650cc bikes.

[@alistairbernard9574]

A Superb account of the Indian Auto Industry. Enjoyed this one. But no mention of Leyland a big player in India. 👍

[@anupamsatpathi2071]

Ashok Leyland.

[@karmajefferson5573]

When he did the Indian accent I died laughing

[@jazzhands7771]

Thank you, come again

[@Sudeep.Manerkar]

@@jazzhands7771 🤣🤣

[@satyam7568]

@@jazzhands7771 lol

[@Bhaidostyaar]

Hi, a Jeep enthusiast here, I request you to please make a separate video about Mahindra and Jeep's relations and history, it will be pretty interesting and a lot of myths would get cleared, please make it when you're interested and have that much time to research, but please surely make it.

[@Sixtixx]

this video is 70% pre 1990s and the rest covering the modern day industry when it should be the other way around. the Indian car industry started its real bloom in around 2010s, still very new but its diversifying at a very fast rate it’s also caught up to the international SUV craze. you missed out on a lot in this video.

[@_zigger_]

My favorite Indian car industry quirk is their compact sedans. They have some regulations for compact cars (including >4m length), and the logical thing was to build normal looking and proportional 4 meter length hatchbacks... but Indians love their sedans I guess. Just search for "Indian compact sedans", they look extremely weird and disproportional, but kinda cute

[@mattw8332]

I noticed a 4 door Suzuki (Maruti?) Swift in the footage towards the end. Looks alright.

[@gone.but.forgotten]

Yeah that’s probably the Swift Dzire (bad name I know), but for stranger cars try Volkswagen Ameo

[@estebanvasquez2307]

I must be indian, because funnily enough, the Dzire is a car I genuinely "dzire" and which I totally looked into buying, because as you've put it, it's so ridiculous...ly cute. I wish more of these "Indian Compact Sedans" were sold overseas, but I also wish they updated their interior, for there's a huge deal breaker (at least in the Dzire): you can't fold down the rear seats.

[@lawl6374]

A classic example of it is the 2012 second generation Swift Dzire at 0:43 which is ofcourse, a sedan version of the swift, it had to comply with the sub-4 meter rule and therefore it is a little out of proportion in the rear almost like it had been spanked lol and also it includes the famous 'bangle butt' design in the rear, you would call it a notchback rather than a sedan for how it is, very intresting car really.

[@mattw8332]

I actually own a Turkish built Hyundai i10 hatchback and learned that a 'Grand i10 sedan' was sold in India and other markets. I assume these are Indian built. Had the Grand i10 sedan been available in the UK I'd probably have bought one of those instead. However, smaller sedans (or 'saloons' as we call them) have declined in popularity over the last 35 years that manufacturers don't bother to sell them here.

[@captlazer5509]

I kinda of like ancient vehicles still in production. Emission aside. Motorcycles from India I really like is the Royal Enfield. Has the 1960's looks down and they are increasing from 500cc to 650cc. They are working on a cafe racer style. Jay Leno reviewed one and like it.

[@masonsykes2240]

If given a choice between any normal gas-powered car available in 2014 and a Hindustan Ambassador, I'd pick the Ambassador for its winning retro style.

[@zhappy]

@@masonsykes2240 Hindustan Motors has recently said that they are working with Peugeot to bring the electric version of Ambassador (Amby) around 2025

[@masonsykes2240]

@@zhappy : D

[@suzi_mai]

I have an Enfield and it's been a wonderful bike.

[@satyakisil4289]

The ancient cars had a frame unlike anyone you get today, they were built like tanks.

[@MTaxiSheep]

The Ambassador is such an iconic car for India that when I ask my Indian friends about the cars back home, the first one they bring up is the Ambassador

[@myMotoring]

after the war, Mahindra’s car business started in 1947, when they began assembling Jeep C-J2s under license.

[@scuckplexity]

That's not a car is it?

[@kalkhalinzhui1753]

@@scuckplexity Not exactly a passenger road car, but hey, it is a vehicle. Mahindra's gotta start somewhere.

[@myMotoring]

@@scuckplexity any transportation moving on wheels is technically a car.

[@scuckplexity]

@@myMotoring so bus and lorries is a car then

[@myMotoring]

@@scuckplexity yes... including vehicles on rail. Lookup for car definition in dictionary.

[@TheAllMightyGodofCod]

not sure if this happened in the rest of Europe but in Portugal the Suzuki 800/Alto was sold in the 90's and 80's as Suzuki Maruti, Maruti being the model name. I remember a friend of mine having a very old one and it was impressive how much that little car would accelerate with that engine. top speed was extremely limited though

[@burninghamon6575]

Later generations of the same car exceeded 140km/h mark

[@kailahmann1823]

In Germany it was named "Suzuki Alto", but still came from India. The Japanese "Alto" while looking very similar (at least back then) was always limited to their "Kei-Car" rules, which extremely limits the size of the car.

[@burninghamon6575]

@@kailahmann1823 here in India, after the 800 was discontinued, we still have its successor with same name, Suzuki Alto

[@tomaszproblem2684]

@@kailahmann1823 In Poland we got it under its regular name.

[@foxy126pl6]

True, i think you could win it in a tv programme some time in the 90s​@@tomaszproblem2684

[@louvendran7273]

In South Africa, "Tata" means "take". When Tata launched in Southern Africa. The cars were so terrible. The community came up with "Tata ama chance" - Take a chance when you drive a Tata.

[@bananaboy7334]

Check the new Tata’s

[@dravidian667]

@@bananaboy7334 they suck too

[@godfreyberry1599]

Reasonably durable but lagging far behind competitors by generations. Asked an Indian gentleman who ran a succesful haulage company why he only used Mercedes trucks, would never consider an Indian made vehicle - ever!.

[@dravidian667]

@@godfreyberry1599 do you know force india manufactures Mercedes engines which are installed in the c, e and s class which includes turbo and v6 engines. Force motors is the only company in the world which manufactures engines for both Mercedes and bmw. There is also a truck brand called Bharat Benz which is an Indian subsidiary for Mercedes Benz which makes world class trucks in india. Don’t underestimate the automobile sector in india in 2021. Your assumptions are based on old data probably from the 1970-80s. Things are different now

[@satyakisil4289]

Tata became good only recently. Mahindra outperforms Tata in Africa on every field.

[@MetalTrabant]

In the early '90s, after the free market started to rise in Hungary, the formerly state-owned car import company brought Maruti 800 into its' lineup to battle with such prestigious high-end vehicles like the Trabant, the Polski-Fiat 126p, or the Romanian Oltcit. Though it was a bit more expensive, it was almost like a real 'Western' car, but still affordable. It was quite a success, some of those early models are getting turned into official vintage cars nowadays, though many were perished as dirt cheap food delivery vehicles... Tata was briefly imported here, too. The Sierra wasn't a big success, but I can still see an odd Indica every now and then. Though the brand name wasn't the best choice here, as it means something like an 'old fart' in Hungarian...

[@runajain5773]

Haha 😂 I am indian wait TATA name brand translate into called old fart very funny

[@OmarBhoo]

love Indian vehicles. My grandfather had a trucking company when he was still with us. He had a bunch of Tatas.

[@AnnubrataRoy]

I clicked on this as soon as the notification hit Thanks Mate! As a Foreigner from Europe you have Covered our Car scene really well! Add me as a Fan of yours💪🏾

[@jackwood2328]

(he is in the USA)

[@seboswujos]

@@jackwood2328 Ed is form the Netherlands

[@KurianfromIndia]

@@jackwood2328 I dont know that Netherlands is in USA .

[@cliffwoodbury5319]

thank u for making the video - i love watching videos on India (i'm not indian) as i am upset i missed much of China's rise (much of that happened before the internet was huge) and so now i try to catch all of India's progress as i feel it is were China was 40 years ago (i feel like it doesn't advertise itself as China does) so it is always good to see the nations progress in real time and the auto industry is a huge part of the nation so to see so much progress lets me know things are going in the right direction!

[@pd.dataframe2833]

It's not 40 years behind china....just 15-20

[@ip2o2o52]

🌹🌹🌹

[@bldontmatter5319]

​@@pd.dataframe2833 it's literally goat farms for 90% of the country. It's absolutely 40 years behind china. I've been there and they tried buying my wife for 5 goats.

[@FullForceDrummer]

Interesting fact about Suzuki Maruti. Trough my work as an automotive engineer, I have lots to do with Indian Suppliers. I often talk privately to the indian colleagues because I am interested in the culture. One of them informed me about the sheer size of Marutis operations. Suzuki Maruti regularly builds around 160.000 vehicles per month. That is around 6700 vehicles per day(6 day working week). This is comparable to Mercedes Benz, BUT Mercedes sells the cars all over the world. Suzuki Maruti mainly sells the cars in India. For example they reached an high in March of 2022 when they exported 26.000 units. Thats an insane fact I think.

[@MrJayrock620]

The Nano did have the honour of achieving the highest crash test rating of any cardboard box tested. It was a full 1.2X better than sturdy ones that your refrigerator comes in 🤣

[@vinayakhulswar7557]

Now that same company makes safest cars in India competing with Volvo and Mahindra❤️❤️❤️

[@gamexwcc3778]

AND NOW TATA AVINYA AND TATA CURVV CAN EVEN BEAT VOLVO IN CRASH TEST

[@muktapandey2583]

@@vinayakhulswar7557 tata compares nowhere near Volvo in safety Only mercedes/bmw can compare with Volvo

[@muktapandey2583]

@@gamexwcc3778 please don't be delusional

[@vinayakhulswar7557]

@@muktapandey2583 Volvo, BMW pricing nowhere compared with tata, Mahindra. Both Indian companies are providing safe cars for middle class people. Middle class people can't afford Volvo, bmw but tata can afford both bmw & Volvo how they did with JLR and Mahindra with Pininfarina Battista 😂😂😂

[@vitoaditya8337]

I think you should also talk about the Indonesian car industry. It really has so many interesting stories, starting with the birth of the Toyota Kijang, the creation of Timor and Bimantara, the rise of the new Toyota-Daihatsu people carrier project (which would later be called the very successful Avanza-Xenia) until the present day, where economy cars called "Low Cost Green Cars" come to life since 2013.

[@dravidian667]

Toyota kijang was sold in india as the Toyota Qualis which was the first Toyota car india made locally

[@bitelaserkhalif]

@@dravidian667 i could say qualis is Frankenstein. Body+frame uses 3rd gen "kijang super", but front fascia and engine is similar to 4th gen "kijang kapsul"

[@nigelbarratt6825]

I was under the impression that the first of the Hindustan ex-Morris Oxfords was the Hindustan Landmaster, actually the Morris Oxford series 2. The Ambassador was the Morris Oxford series 3 which came later.

[@CountryFarmBoyUSA]

Just awesome, if only 10% of India watches this, you will get almost 200 millions of views!

[@ip2o2o52]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 yeah bro

[@stephenjcuk7562]

I was waiting for Hindustan Contessa to be mentioned. This rebadged '70s Vauxhall Victor was in production until 2002.

[@digitalkoh]

Thumbs up for India for keeping manual alive!

[@RDSyafriyar]

“India - a land where the last thing one needs to bother with is looking good. In India - at least in the circles I moved in - it’s natural to look beautiful by the smile in your heart and the way you move through the world.” - Erin Reese

[@perfectallycromulent]

that is not at all how Bollywood works

[@cruiser6260]

Uhhh status and prestige are everything to Indians. Why do you think so many are doctors, lawyers, engineers

[@drakefallentine8351]

The level of research required from limited and fragmented sources is astonishing. Well done Ed.

[@robertmoore2049]

Thank you for sharing this with us! I didn’t know much at all about the history of the automobile industry in India. Your presentation is both entertaining and informative. The Hindustan Ambassador reminds of the Checker Marathon the design of which remained unchanged from its 1960 - 1982 production run. (The biggest change was bigger and heavier bumpers to meet safety requirements.) Perhaps one day in the near future there will be cars made in India selling in the U.S. - and selling well…

[@ip2o2o52]

Sure bro 🌼

[@flipflopthong2]

Suzuki Australia sources some of its models from the Maruti factory. My father spent his formative years in Calcutta and drove fully imported British sports cars before emigrating to Australia in the 1960s. My cousins in Delhi drive Honda, Suzuki/Maruti, and Hyundai.

[@nmmm2000]

Thanks for the video! In 1980's I read about Badal car. It was shown as example of microcar. There were a picture with very low quality as well. Later I tried to find information about this car on internet and found nothing until now. Another story - at the time Tata Nano was projected, I was thinking about buying Tata shares. I did not bought it, then I saw their price rise despite the Nano fail (there were some bank reason for price rise) . I remember the Nano was advertised as $ 5000 car. Then they realize that the price will be more, but Tata did some lottery and if you win, you could buy it for $ 5000. At the same time Tata Nano were not comply with US regulations so it was never exported in US (Jay Leno have video on this). Then they decided to do EU model. It was advertised as 5000 EUR car (so to comply with regulation). Then price rose to 6000 or 7000 and meanwhile there were cheaper 4 door cars in EU. This is why EU model failed as well. I would love if you can do video for Tata and why Tata Nano failed exactly.

[@nmmm2000]

@@rnayabed thanks, very helpful

[@tanu5541]

Completely over whelmed by your take on our car industry❤️

[@CommodoreFan64]

I use to work for a tractor dealer here in the US that sales Mahindra, and I can say first hand the quality for the price is really good for their small tractors, so I think if they can improve their cars to meet US standards(quality, safety, looks, etc..) at a fair price, good gas mileage, keep them easy to repair with a good parts network, then they could have a good shot at taking at least some market share away from someone like Toyota of what's left of the small/medium size commuter/city/first car market.

[@philhealey449]

Mahindra pickups seem to have good credentials.

[@CommodoreFan64]

@@philhealey449 I've never dealt with their trucks, but if they are the same as the tractors, then I'm sure they are solid.

[@philhealey449]

@@CommodoreFan64 We went for one of these in Nepal recently choosing it over an Isuzu for a coffee farming venture. It was discovering the tractor pedigree that swayed me and no regrets so far.

[@satyam7568]

XUV 700 could be sold in the US and the new Scorpio N too

[@joshuanishanthchristian5217]

A lone Aravind III prototype still exists! It's in storage in the open-air garage of a house in my hometown of Cochin (in Kerala, India). It reputedly belongs to a relative of one of the original designers. An image of the car in its current state: images.newindianexpress.com/uploads/user/imagelibrary/2021/1/13/w1200X800/A_Baby_Waits.jpg

[@ryugatsuchiya9018]

god, its ugly.

[@garvitchaudhary1]

Bro, we should make a documentary or something. I mean even ididnt know about this. You on instagram or something so i can contact you??

[@EdsAutoReviews]

Well to be fair, especially for a homegrown attempt, it doesn't look all too bad. I have seen far worse attempts.

[@jfv65]

That car should be preserved in a museum. it's part of the modern industrial history of India.

[@joshuanishanthchristian5217]

@@garvitchaudhary1 I do have an Instagram, but I'm not sure how exactly we can make that documentary... I'm not sure where in Cochin the car is (that photo is from a news article). I'm also currently living abroad and won't be back in Cochin for Well over a month

[@imviiku]

Disappointing to see not much focus was put on the last 10 years of indian automotive industry. Tata & Mahindra have completely changed the game in the country.

[@argamerindian4053]

EXACTLY, i expected him to cover how indian car companies brought revolutionary products but it's not his fault, he did the research on what he saw online

[@jessecongdon6167]

The truly amazing thing about the indian market is that if they have a design that just works the keep on building it in perpetuity.. i'm so tempted to nip over there and buy Suzuki Gypsy, which is based on a car that they stopped making in the 80s, but goes on in other markets as the Jimmy

[@Sammael66685]

Tata has been already selling cars for quite a time at least in Spain (checking in, also in France, Germany and Italy) with the Sierra, Renamed as TelcoSport. And later on with the Indica for at least is first gen (also in the UK). Mahindra and Mahindra did had a try out at Spain as well although i cannot remember exactly which model or models they entered in.

[@Tejasking]

Mahindra and Mahindra sold the Mahindra Scorpio SUV and Scorpio Getaway Pick-up truck as the Mahindra Goa and Mahindra Pik up respectively in Spain

[@Sammael66685]

@@Tejasking Thank you so much for the reminder :)

[@darrens3]

6:00 you can see the principles of the initial design, that they hadn't perfected proportions with the styling ques of the 1950s as it's very hard to get right on a smaller car, but then 6:26 by the time 1960s design influence came through internationally they tidied up the design and made a nicely proportioned car. what's unique about it in particular is the bumpers which are the same moulding profile mirrored about the horizontal. which is completely unique, and reminds me of the timber mouldings Lutyens played with in the 1920s on his buildings where he would stack timber mouldings on top of one another and make fantastical architectural features from traditional shapes. it's ironic considering that the Indian parliament was designed by Lutens. Lutyens must have been picking up on the Indians playfulness with their historic buildings where they would play with mouldings, stacking them and flipping them to make features not seen anywhere else in the world. And those bumpers reflect that. Only an Indian could choose to produce a bumper of that profile. It's definitely not something you'd see in western car design at the time or even now for that matter and perhaps should be used as a reference for vernacular Indian car design; more textural design. Something that's not seen anywhere at the moment.

[@changsangma1915]

Your ideology on vehicular design might work for the era when just flashy external looks compensated for the crude internal engineering. Unless it served any implication of safety barrier for crush zones, it has no reason in itself of utilisation in todays modern standards.

[@Elijah-cy9do]

Indonesia next! We are yet to have our own national brand selling Indonesian cars at a large scale but many of the Toyotas here are designed and made in Indonesia, making them Indonesian.

[@jeffreyhunt1727]

Terrific video. I started watching your channel a few months ago. I normally don't care much about cars but I love your storytelling, and I've watched dozens of your videos. Thanks for everything.

[@damieg82]

17:27 technically tens of thousands of people have bought Indian cars but don't live in, me included. I live in the Caribbean and most countries here drive on the left, just like in India, so sourcing vehicle from India was an obvious choice since the new car dealerships are always looking to widen their products offerings and/or sell cheaper models. For the past 25 years or so, Indian made cars have been available in the Caribbean. I believe the first offerings were TATA pickups and commercial vans and trucks, and in the years following, you can now get Mahindras, as well as Indian-domestic-market models like the Suzuki Dzire and Honda BR-V. I bought a new Suzuki Baleno in March this year... while that model is manufactured in different locations around the world, the ones we get in the Caribbean are all from India.

[@abhaypatel4292]

I hope the products you receive are good.

[@nigelcreighton2411]

Thank you my guy, you are the KZbin equivalent of Curbside Classics, and your doing a great job. And I still say the Jaguar XJ6 and the Porsche 911 are the two cars that maintained the original design through a number of generational changes. Thanks again.

[@leonb2637]

Ford recently gave up production in India due to poor sales and no profits. They were exporting the very small 'Ecosport' CUV to the USA until late 2021 from India with some components from outside India - some had engines made in the USA for the NA market). What was left of MG-Rover made the 'City Rover' for India but also exported to the UK in the late 1990's-early 2000's. it was another failure in the UK as had poor crash safety ratings and not cheap enough. Then you have TATA who now owns former British companies (and Ford) brands Jaguar and Land Rover. Mirhanda group also made Jeep vehicles under license. They also make tractors, off-road non-road legal small 4x4 vehicles sold in the NA market.

[@M3ganwillslay]

Honda will leave India soon .maybe next year .

[@BELCAN57]

Tata needs to contact Malcolm Bricklin about importing their cars into the US. I can see it now: "From the man that brought you the Yugo, here's the Tata!"

[@RahulJain-nv4yv]

Yugo and Tata are totally different. Tatas not only make affordable cars and trucks but also make luxury cars. It may surprise people but Daimler brand is owned by Tata and not Mercedes.(As per my Knowledge)

[@robertmcduck6712]

Do the finnish or russian car industry next, especially Finland almost had two car companies.

[@abhinandhrajeev6335]

My dad used to own a Premiere Padmini. Seeing a Padmini or an Ambassador on the roads always makes my day as nowadays it's quite rare to see those legends.

[@moestrei]

The Tesla shown was a Model S facelift which was produced from 2016 onwards. The 2012 - 2016 version had a black nose cone. The Tata Nano was a great concept perhaps it can become the base for a cheap EV.

[@mattw8332]

I really like the Hindustan Contessa. Based on the 1970s British Vauxhall Victor FE Series .

[@mikewysko2268]

Excellent video production! Cars, trucks, aircraft, motorcycles, trains, military equipment and even wrist watches, so much going on in India that many of us don't know about. Would like to know the current and future status of electric vehicles in India. 🇮🇳

[@user-th4ch4ky3g]

The first electric car was the love bird came out in 1993 . Sales was bad and the company stopped making cars they now make specialized motors for different companies.

[@TheJetJONES]

My father NEVER understood, why Europe (especially Germany) never imported the Tata Nano For him, the Tata Nano was a way better choice than the Smart Fortwo

[@matth3we]

Smart fortwo had a nice design and great performance compared to nano Nanp is great for its price

[@deanchur]

With China going off the rails India has a great opportunity to jump in and take their manufacturing. Shanghai Gigafactory? It's now the Thiruvananthapuram Terafactory (good luck to foreigners learning that one!)

[@Donald_Shaw]

Excellent video. Thanks for your hard work and diligence in posting these interesting videos.

[@studytime2570]

Very interesting. Please keep doing this world tour.

[@AryanKumar-fz2dm]

Ed, I would like to mention that Sanjay Gandhi actually had automotive experience, he worked in the Rolls Royce Crewe factory as an apprentice. He also had the blessing of being the then prime minister's son and her anointed political heir. The company was liquidated in 1977, but later salvaged in 1981.

[@rchatte100]

Very good video. When I usto goto India on holiday as a kid I lived riding around in Ambassadors. Very big and comfy. Very few left now, hopefully a few have been saved in museums etc. BTW, Tata have owned Jaguar Land Rover for many years now and are doing a great job running it.

[@kellingtonlink956]

Thanks for another fascinating history lesson. Cheers!

[@piruloacme1865]

India has (or had, I'm not an Indian market specialist) a very curious law that gives tax benefits to any manufacturer that builds cars under a lenght of 4 meters. As a result very strange sedan cars were born, like the VW Ameo or the Suzuki Dzire.

[@dravidian667]

That law is still there, sub 4 metre cars attract less taxes. Any car longer than 4 metres get a tax of 40% and above. Toyota raised the issue over this absurd law, they suggested taxing cars based on its emissions instead of length. Uneducated politicians at the time brought this law to favour car manufacturers like Maruti which built small cars at the time, I’m pretty sure there was a bribe involved Cars with bigger engines attract even more taxes Cars which are imported has above 100% in taxes

[@ZX3000GT1]

I would love to see you to do a video on Vector Aeromotive. I discover the brand through Gran Turismo 2 (GT2 had, or still has IMO, one of the most diverse car list in a racing game ever), and reading some of the bits and pieces about the company is quite interesting.

[@alansandybay]

You know the history better than us.

[@pedropuckerstein4670]

I always wanted a tuk tuk for myself here in New Jersey. I understand there was a company making US grade electric tuk tuks. Tata is an interesting company, years ago, they bought TGN (Tyco Global Network), a world wide undersea fiber optic communications network that I had worked on when it was owned and built by Tyco Electronics :)

[@arijitpalit2756]

They are huge conglomerate and operate multiple buisnesses. Ranging from table salt to military aircraft (they have made components for F-15s and will be manufacturing airbuses in near future).

[@pedropuckerstein4670]

@@arijitpalit2756 Correct - and from what I remember, if people had a choice when working on TGN, they did not want to work for Tata and some actually bailed out at least those that didn't have the choice.

[@satyam7568]

@@pedropuckerstein4670 why didn't they want to work with tata?

[@pedropuckerstein4670]

@@satyam7568 Cultural collisions, let's say.

[@samiam5557]

Thanks Ed, another fantastic episode!

[@user-hz9ch5mx7o]

6:01 love your attempt to do the indian accent

[@TheJetJONES]

He almost sounded like Apu 🤣

[@dmapittsburgh]

I love your videos! Great graphics and narratives!

[@vikramrao2797]

Tata & Mahindra are about to venture into the full ev market with some very interesting models.

[@NFSMAN50]

I've heard of Indian car companies such as Maruti, Mahindra, and Tata I think. Great video

[@keithartworker]

Great work piecing this all together!👍

[@wondermenel2811]

Poland when? Please do Poland

[@NeurodivergentSuperiority]

I would love to know more about the FSO company, they made more than just the Polonez

[@anirudhani8160]

6:02 boy oh boy the accent was spot on

[@abhinavmj1613]

I am surprised you didn't mention about the Hindustan Contessa which was India's first affordable luxury car of sorts from the 80s , the Mahindra jeeps which were widely used by the police for decades and people in the hilly regions since the 50s , the Suzuki Gypsy which was popularly used by the military and the Suzuki 1000 from the 80s.

[@hantms]

I liked the Hindustan Ambassador. ;) It was (and probably still is) around a LOT as taxis and the like. It's a mini-limosine.

[@CJColvin]

You should do the Mexican car industry next.🇲🇽

[@fl0atpvnk]

YES

[@floridaboiwoody]

You da man Ed! Great video! As I have come to expect!

[@adrianrutterford762]

Excellent!! A new video from Edward!!

[@SonicBoone56]

Extremely well done video! I learned a ton

[@homg85]

Love your videos man! Good work

[@burninghamon6575]

Thanks, you blessed me with this

[@alphacompany4837]

I heard Ambassador may enter production again ! 👌🏻👌🏿

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

Another excellent, enjoyable and informative video! Well done.

[@glennnel3570]

A highly enjoyable and excellent presentation on a complex subjuct. VERY well done. Entertaining and informative. What more can one ask for. I wish you success. With presentations like this one your subscribers will certainly increase - Well deserved.

[@braunarsch]

yay! you covered india, and also the car that i own (tata nano). it is a slow but cute, quirky and charming car. it's like a puppy, you know it can't do much, but it's like a little pet that makes you smile :-P

[@d.o.m.494]

Your episodes are the highlight of my week.

[@abhinandhrajeev6335]

Yooo! I knew this was gonna happen when I saw your community post regarding the Ambassador 😉 Great video Ed!

[@AFExploration]

Sipani also built a local Montego in 1996 after they purchased the rights from BMW after Rover went under in 1994 but didn’t sell well due to its high cost, it was also classed as an executive car 😁 its was said there were hundreds unsold even 20 years later but were scrapped after floods destroyed the area in 2008

[@unclemarksdiyauto]

Another great video and explanation of that car culture.

[@smvuy]

Here in uruguay, you can find marutis still on the streets of montevideo

[@xniorvox]

The Maruti cars were also imported to Poland in the 90s and sold as Maruti Suzuki. The market needed cheap cars after the communism collapse and in difficult times of economic transformation. They were quite popular and appreciated by Polish drivers, because the suspension was quite sturdy, the cars were quite reliable and offered very good fuel efficiency.

[@tomaszproblem2684]

When did importing end?

[@aarshmathur2909]

Finally Ed. This should be interesting!

[@timothywalsh866]

Great episode. I would have liked you to talk more about the 3 wheelers. Piaggio and others.

[@s.rharikrishna1656]

Thanks mate , I asked for this video and you made it true

[@ajaychoudhary9817]

feel so good to see you cover my country in your videos

[@jota7900]

Very good video! Although I thought you would be focusing more on the Tuk-Tuk and it's origins (Piaggio APE), at least for the first half of the video. Maybe a good future video idea? As always, love your work!

[@cropduster6059]

Awesome video. Keep up the good work.

[@stanojevicnatasa2514]

Last year when I was drawing a Hindustan Ambasador for my friend from India, I was looking for a documentary about their car industry, where were you then?

[@NeurodivergentSuperiority]

Amazing video, even if you left out the DC Avanti. What is the DC Avanti you may ask? Well apparentley it's an Indian supercar, yes, a mid engined, Hindi supercar. Although the Avanti is kind of what i would call, an epic fail. Running on a 4cyl Renualt engine and weighing 1,500KG (yikes!) it's kind of a meme really.

[@changsangma1915]

....there are sportcars from around the world that had similar engine configuration but were developed with the intent of a zippy sporty little machine but not for outright speed. Supercars are on a different level when it comes to raw performance. The Avanti suffered from inadequate R&D while pitching it as niche product no one was actually asking for. To add the notoriety of the designer to make weird looking kit cars it too suffered from that curse.

[@NeurodivergentSuperiority]

@@changsangma1915 Thank you for telling me this, you seem educated (yes i read your entire comment.)

[@matth3we]

DC Avanti looks like copycat cars from China and the performance isn't that great u could buy a nice skoda for the price of dc Avanti

[@livinginvancouverbc2247]

15:02 That Briggs & Stratton Flyer is pretty sweet!