Hindustan Motors have launched a mini-truck co-branded with Chinese auto company Shandong Shefing. Christened HM-Shifeng Winner, the vehicle will roll out of HM's Uttarpara plant.

With retail finance becoming a serious problem in the last three months, Ambassador sales had nearly halved between July and October as compared to the same quarter in 2007. The mother unit at Uttarpara has an annual capacity of 24,000 units.

Hindustan Motors Managing Director R. Santhanam said, "With the new car 'HM-Shifeng-Winner' we hope to utilise some of the excess capacity."

The 2.3-tonne Winner, at a price of Rs 3.9 lakh (ex-showroom), can carry up to one-tonne payload and would compete with Tata Motor's Ace.

Santhanam said: "The Uttarpara plant will manufacture 1,000 mini-trucks a month and will use the idle capacity ever since Ambassador sales began to shrink, following the entry of Maruti Udyog some 25-odd years ago."

Mr Santhanam added, "By March 2009, we hope to introduce two more variants of the Winner, including the CNG model. In the ancillaries business (forgings, castings and stamping), we have already begun supplying to commercial, utility and tractor manufacturers."