Sipani

Sipani Automobiles Ltd
Company type	Automobile manufacturer
Industry	Automotive
Founded	1970's
Defunct	n/a
Fate	defunct
Headquarters	Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Products	Automobiles ;
Number of employees	n/a

Sipani Automobiles Ltd was an Indian car manufacturer established in 1973, located in Bangalore.^[1] They mainly manufactured subcompact cars with fibreglass bodies. They also took over Auto Tractors Limited in 1991 and manufactured diesel engines and tractors in the old ATL factory in Pratapgarh, Uttar Pradesh.^[2]

Badal and Dolphin

In 1975 the company began production of India's first three-wheeled car, a four-door model based on Reliant Robin called the Badal. This was not a success, even though a four-wheeled version called "Badal 4" was developed. Sipani instead switched to building a copy of the British four-wheeled, three-door Reliant Kitten under the name Sipani Dolphin. The standard version of the Dolphin was light blue in colour. Being light and comparably powerful by Indian standards of the day, the Dolphin became known as a fast car and saw some competition success in India. Production of the Dolphin was eclipsed by the advent of the Maruti 800. To compete, a five-door version of the Dolphin was developed, called the "Montana". Its impact in the market was negligible at best, mainly selling in a very small area near Bangalore.

Montana

Later they produced a car called the Sipani Montana D1, which had a body copied in plastic from a second generation Daihatsu Charade but equipped with an Indian-built Mitsubishi-Shakti diesel engine intended for a mini-tractor.^[3] These cars were very small players; in the fiscal year 1989-90 a mere 290 automobiles were built by Sipani.^[1]

Montego

Sipani lost money in most of these ventures, but owner R. K. Sipani somehow managed to get a contract to assemble the Rover Montego from CKD-kits in India, following the market liberalization. It was not a success either: 236 cars left the factory in 1995, with only 51 more finding buyers in the next fifteen months. Sipani was running heavily into debt and was the subject of a rescue effort from India's Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction in the late 1990s.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b Bhaktavatsala Rao, C. (1993-02-20). "Structural Configurations and Strategic Investments: Indian Automobile Industry". Economic and Political Weekly. 28 (8/9). Mumbai, India: Sameeksha Trust: M22.
^ Bajaj, J.L. (1994-08-27). "Divesting State Ownership: A Tale of Two Companies". Economic and Political Weekly. 29 (35). Mumbai, India: Sameeksha Trust: M-127.
^ "Sipani Dolphin, Montanna (sic) [India]". Hari's Motor World. Archived from the original on 2008-04-19.
^ "Britain's Rover eyes multi-utility vehicles segment in India". Business. Rediff.com. 2009-12-29. Retrieved 2013-09-15.