Jeremy Clarkson’s office calls Dilip Chhabria to request the e Amby

Dilip Chhabria’s DC2 has been stirring up social media for the last few weeks with photos of the e Amby, an electric car inspired by the HM Ambassador (Morris Oxford). Pictures have permeated the web so much that motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson wants to feature the car on his show. Jeremy Clarkson along with James May and Richard Hammond are the hosts of The Grand Tour that airs on Amazon Prime Video and the trio is arguably the world’s most recognized presenters.

In a conversation with Turn of Speed, Mr Chhabria said that Jeremy Clarkson’s office contacted them seeking permission for using the e Amby’s pictures and if the car could be brought to the place where Clarkson’s filming.

India’s most famous automobile designer presented a modern electric car inspired by the iconic Ambassador through a new brand, DC2. The e Amby is the result of Mr Chhabria’s attempt to design and develop an electric car that looked like nothing else and would still be distinctive to India. This is not his first try reinventing the Ambassador as he presented the Ambierod at the Auto Expo 2008 which enthused millions of car enthusiasts for its outrageous looks. While that was just a design study and never had any intentions of making it to a production line, the e Amby is in product development and four prototypes have been built in Switzerland for testing, as confirmed by Mr Chhabria to ElectricVehicleWeb. One of the prototype cars were to come to India this month but plans have been delayed in the current coronavirus situation.

Though no details about the battery size, range or the motor have been revealed, Mr Chhabria has said that the e Amby will be no slouch with a 0 to 100 km/h time of four seconds. While there were plans to install four separate motors for each wheel, the final-spec could include two electric motors on each axle. The e Amby is expected to offer a premium & spacious cabin inspired by a Bentley, while the ingress would through a stylish gullwing door. The product is to be priced at half of what a Mercedes-Benz E-Class costs in India, and Chhabria estimates around 5,000 units could be sold every year when it launches in late-2021 taking into account the Indian diaspora as well.

Although the EV project has received interest from a leading Chinese EV automobile brand, Mr Chhabria is quite confident that they will produce the car at the facility that made the DC Avanti. Read our full interview with Dilip Chhabria to get all the details.

Source: turnofspeed.in