Coming in 2015: MPV edition
We are living in a country with more than 121 crore people. Considering a senario where more and more people travel via road, people movers make for quite an important automobile segment. The Toyota Innova broke the mould by giving people what they wanted, essentially not just another commercial vehicle made into a people mover. Multi-purpose vehicles saw significantly increasing volumes with the launch of Maruti Suzuki Ertiga and Honda Mobilo, recently. 2015 seems like many new manufacturers are set to join in.
Renault Lodgy
It is good to hear that Renault hasn’t brought out a re-badged Nissan Evalia as its offering in the MPV segment. The French manufacturer is bringing the Lodgy from their international portfolio here. The Lodgy is a Dacia model and comes with seating capacity for seven. The car is likely to employ the familiar K9K diesel engine found in the Pulse and the Scala. Renault has confirmed the launch in the first quarter of 2015. The Lodgy has very tough job ahead as this is primarily the domain of Toyota’s Innova, Honda Mobilio and the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. Pricing will be the deciding factor bringing prospective customers to Renault. A price tag north of Rs 6 lakh is expected.
Datsun GO+
Nissan has a different strategy for every country. The re-launched low cost Datsun brand in India is part of the Japanese brand’s country-specific strategy. No matter how many hot hatches and sport saloons we crave, ‘affordability’ has the most significant part to play in a buyer’s decision making process. The Datsun GO was an attempt to bring exactly that and next in the pipeline is the GO+, a sub-four metre MPV. The GO+ is based on the hatchback, but is essentially a new model all together. The GO+ shares the same engine with the GO hatchback, a three-cylinder, all-aluminium 1.2-litre motor producing 67bhp and 104Nm of torque. The number may seem puny however, this MPV weighs just above 800kg which should make for decent performance. Mahindra’s Quanto is the only completion for the GO+, though it will be in a different price range. With a claimed fuel efficiency of over 20kmpl and pricing expected to start from about Rs 4.3 lakh, we think there is a niche in the segment that Datsun wants to fill. Read our Quick Drive report here.
New Toyota Innova
Unarguably the pioneer of the segment, the Japanese manufacturer has played a significant role in popularizing the segment in India. Starting with the Qualis, and followed by the Innova (now entering its 10th year), Toyota has found a sweet spot in MPV segment. All three updates made it to India in 2009, 2011, and most recently last year. The question of a new Innova surfaced with the sudden rise in the number of rivals since 2010. There are already camouflaged spy pictures of the all-new Innova undergoing testing in India, floating around internet. The final product is expected towards the second half of 2015. Since the Innova is nearing its 10th year in production, an array of major changes are expected. Prices are not expected to increase too steeply, yet more top-end variants with premium price tags are expected.
