Only a few days ago we had brought you the news that Hindustan Motors was readying a slew of products to be launched in the commercial vehicle space. One of the products mentioned was the Ambassador car based pick up. Hindustan Motors has actually launched the said vehicle with the name Veer. In the naming style, Hindustan Motors is following the lead of Ashok Leyland which has announced a pick up called the Dost. The Veer is a less than one tonne payload carrying vehicle. We see some problems here. The Veer has to compete with the Tata Ace, the Mahindra Maxximo, the Force Trump and the Piaggio Ape Truk. All vehicles mentioned as competition and the Veer are for the last mile transportation. In India typically the last mile transportation vehicle needs to be compact and very manoeuvreable and all the vehicles that the Veer will be competing with have that capability. The Veer by having the ponderous front end of the Ambassador car could lose out on the manoeuvreability front. In fact Mahindra once tried to take on the Tata Ace by creating the Max Pickup that was built on the old jeep platform and having a front end similar to the MM 540. The size ensured that the said vehicle was no match for the Tata Ace. That prompted Mahindra to make the Maxximo. Interesting enough in the same space, Hindustan Motors has another pick up called the Winner. So one wonders about the logic behind the launch of the Veer. Surely, Hindustan Motors know a thing or two that we do not know. There are two versions of the Veer; the first has the load bed separate from the front cabin and the second called the Veer LX has the load bed that is seamlessly integrated with the cabin.
Picture Courtesy: Autocar India.com
