The ever-so-high demand for vehicles with ample room, in India, has inspired Ashok Leyland, a medium and heavy truck builder, to work on the production of a utility vehicle soon. The company is likely to enter the segment that is subjugated by none other than Toyota Innova, India’s largest selling multi-seater personal vehicle.
V. Sumantran, Executive Vice-Chairman, Hinduja Automotive, said, “The demand for the Innova has defined the overall demand for such vehicles in India. The way people travel has completely changed in India in the past few years. There used to be a Tata Sumo, which got replaced by Toyota’s top-selling Qualis, which eventually made way for the Innova. Today, there is a waiting period for the Innova, which sells close to 5,000 units every month.”
Introduced in 2005, the Toyota Innova, with a starting price of around Rs. 8.64 lacs, has always topped among other rivals in terms of sales, even after carrying a comparatively high price tag.
Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM), the Indian subsidiary of Toyota Motors, managed to sell 4,765 units of the Innova in September, which improved the sales figures by 126 per cent as 2,108 units were sold in the same month last year.
It is important to note that with the multi-utility vehicle, Leyland would enter the passenger vehicle segment for the first time. It started making commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses long time ago. As a matter of fact, Ashok Leyland and Nissan Motor company are in collaboration for quite some time, with the light commercial vehicle 'Dost' being their recent production. For the MUV, the company is working on the lines of Nissan’s NV200 van, which is sold in a number of international markets at present.
While Nissan Motor company is believed to be all-set to showcase the India version of NV200, at the coming international Auto Expo at New Delhi in January, Leyland confirms that its first MUV will be ready in the next 12 to 15 months.
“We will have a common platform but they would be expressed differently, with different styling, different content and different positioning. We will target more towards commercial users, while Nissan will target more of personal users. If we take the Innova, for example, a lot of people use it for family transport and some others as a tourist car and as taxis,” Sumantran said. However, he did not divulge details regarding the price, but, if sources are to be believed, the product will be priced below that of Innova. The price tag is expected to be in proximity with that of Mahindra Xylo.
Chevrolet, too, is mulling upon joining the league as it gears up to launch an advanced version of the Tavera, with a new engine. Maruti Suzuki would also be introducing a version of the R-III concept in the coming time.
Thus, considering the average size of Indian families and tendency to travel together, the multi utility segment is gaining popularity among car makers, and also because it proves to be the best option to satiate mass people needs.
