Standard 2000

The history of Standard 2000 only became possible because the Indian government had been promoting an automotive policy since 1948 that wanted to break the previous dependence on British companies in order to build and promote the domestic automotive market.
The British Standard Company was very interested in the Indian market. After successful negotiations with the Indian government, Standard Motor Products of India Limited was founded shortly thereafter.
The production of Indian versions of British standard and Triumph models, e.g. the Vanguard and the Herald, began successfully. After Standard had disappeared from the British market and Triumph had merged into the almighty British Leyland, suitable successor products were sought.

During this time, the number of locally produced components increased rapidly, and engines, transmissions and axles were already being produced in 1964. Autonomous production led to financial independence for Standard of India in 1973 and business tripled by 1985. This success was not necessarily due to car production, as between 1977 and 1985 the company concentrated largely on the production of commercial vehicles. The investments in the production of commercial vehicle engines initially led to the import of diesel engines of British design, which soon extended from CKD-assembly to series production. In the end, the engines were exported back to Great Britain from India and were installed in the Carbodies version of the ubiquitous FX4 taxi.

The director of Standard Motor Products of India, Mr. C V Karthik Narayananan, empathized with British car manufacturers, especially British Leyland, from 1981 on whether they could start production of a suitable car in India.
It was not until 1984 that a contract was signed between Standard of India and Mark Snowdon of Austin Rover. They agreed on the delivery of 12,000 sets of SD1 body parts. It was planned to install engines from Indian production - the 2.5-litre Standard diesel and 2-litre petrol engines.

The production capacity of the Madras plant was 16 cars per day (approx. 4,000 cars per year), although this target was never achieved during the excessively short production period.
In 1985 the first Standard 2000 came off the production line in Madras. Beside the engines there were only few changes compared to the Rover SD1 2000; in the main one recognizes that the ground clearance was increased by approximately 3 cm. At that time there were around 8 million cars in India - with a population of around 800 million people. The Standard 2000 should be the top model of the Indian car industry.

After the production of the SD1 ended in England in 1986, it was agreed to relocate the production of the body parts completely to India. The corresponding production facilities were shipped and rebuilt in Madras.
Unfortunately the Standard 2000 was not a great success despite all efforts. The manufacturing quality was regarded as quite good, the electric windows flashed a bit of luxury - and the air conditioner was a blessing in India.
The potential clientele was very manageable at a unit price of around 212,000 rupees - at that time equivalent to 12,000 GBP .

After only three years, production ended due to lack of demand. In fact, the factory began exporting the panels back to the UK in 1988 so that UNIPART could sell them on the aftermarket. Fortunately for the European SD1 friends, the spare parts specialist Rimmer Bros. bought most of the parts.