"… Ananda Loke… Where it all started. Loke means the earth. Ananda might not have been able to conquered the world immediately, but it’s abundantly clear as where they were headed …" Teera Pitipak, Ph.D. Professor of Industrial Economic.
Back in the early 1960’s, demand for motor cars in Thailand was not as high as it is now. But looking at the growth in motor car sales, it’s obvious that the market could be very lucrative to any manufacturer thinking about expanding the market.
Most of the cars back then were made by the Japanese, Italian, and British. 1960’s was the time where most manufacturer founded their motor assembly plant in Thailand. Starting with British Conan in 1959, followed closely by Royale Motors in 1960, South Bangkok Autoworks also started production around the early 60’s.
Mitsushita Motor Corporation then, was finding a way to expand their market beyond Japan. While their rival Royale Motors already have established the market by 1960, it’s clear that they weren’t in good health. They ended up being acquired by Mitsushita in 1964. But Mitsushita back then thought that Thailand was not a lucrative enough country to dedicated an entire assembly plant to. They instead chose to focus their attention entirely to markets beyond South East Asia, which at the time did not have a single country with cars buying public larger than 1,000 cars a month. As a result, they decided to instead sell the already established Royal Motors Plant.
Chalerm Ananda at that point was the owner of Ananda Heavy Industries, dealing in shipbuilding and management and building on various industrial sites. See the potential in the market of motor cars in Thailand. While it’s clear that at first the profit clearly isn’t there if it’s entirely sold within Thailand, the venture could lead to something much bigger if the focus was also put into exporting these models.
Chalerm Ananda, with a group of other investing industrialists, decided to approach and pitch the idea of Thai’s own motor vehicle to Mitsushita Motors Corporation of Japan. Since they already had a few connections from the heavy industries sector. While Mitsushita might not have been keen on manufacturing their own cars themselves, but they were willing to help kickstart a company that clearly wouldn’t be in the same market with them. Especially one very well funded by then military dictatorship who wished to promote nationalism and started the import substitution policy.
Developing an entirely new car would be very much cost prohibitive, but developing one from outdated chassis design was very much possible. It’s a strategy that has since been employed a lot of newer manufacturers in the world.
The prototype started development since 1964, using the chassis of the old 1960 Royale Sunrise, which was by then the property of Mitsushita Motors. It’s notable that in 1964, Mitsushita started the production of a new Kuruan model, which has a companion in the smaller, sportier model, the Mitshsuita Royale S. Clearly the replacement for the Royale Sunrise and very apt since most of the development team of Royale Motors moved to Mitsushita after the takeover.
The power unit however, was not the old Royale Sunrise OHV-6, instead a smaller, lighter, more economical and cheaper Mitsushita 1A-Series. A 4-cylinder OHV powerplant with potential for up to 1600cc. Ananda opted for 1600cc version for the first generation Loke. It was said to have been capable of 70 Gross Horsepower. A very much basic powerplant that offers great reliability and value for money.
The body of the old Royale Sunrise was removed. And Ananda had it’s own body designed and developed, along with the entirely new interior. Even though most of the platform and engine are outsourced, other components were made by Ananda themselves in the new industrial complex besides the old Royale plant.
After a few years of road testing and development, Ananda Loke debut in 1967.
Very much a basic automobile, the Ananda Loke was attractively priced. Being mostly made of well established leftover design. The styling was done by famous Italian designhouse, Berelli. The suspension was also tuned to suit Thailand’s road condition at the time. Which while in Bangkok was very smooth and modern, outside the city, a lot of the roads still weren’t paved.
But skepticism was very much in the buying public. Thai’s population at the time was not convinced that these locally made products would be able to compete with foreign manufacturer. Even SBA was struggling without government intervention.
It only helped by that in 1967, the import tariff of cars were raised to 40%. Very high rate at the time. While it didn’t killed the import industries immediately, it help seeded the plant that started local car industries that’s still going strong today.
With front and rear bench seats, 4 speed column shifted gearbox, and soft ride suspension. The Loke became a favourite of successful family man looking for a sensible, reliable and very stylish car. While it was very much no frills family car. The Loke was tough and reliable. The proven Japanese components paid off. And after a slow start by skepticism, Ananda Loke became consistently the best selling car in Thailand by 1971.
The range was also expanded. While the basic 1600cc was kept, the updated Mitsushita 1A powerplant also enabled the newly created, and cheaper 1300cc option to not become entirely anemic. And by 1971, there was an aspiration trim level, the 1600cc “S” model, which had Rostyle wheels, stiffer suspension, rejetted carburation, anti-roll bar, full instrumentation, and floor mounted shifter.
Right immediately after the production started, Ananda exported the Loke to various neighbouring countries, including Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, even as far as Indonesia and Philippines. This vastly help made the Ananda venture to become a profitable one very quickly.
By 1970, the first Ananda Loke was exported to outside South East Asia. To Australia, it wasn’t long after that Ananda would starts it’s exportation to Europe, first to the Netherlands and spreading to various other countries. But Ananda didn’t have mainstream success outside Asia until the late 1980’s.
In the future, I will showcase more Ananda models and it’s path to success. I hope this gets you started well enough on the company.
