It is very evident that the first three months of the year 2012 has seen a lot of increase and decrease in the attributes of the Indian automobile industry. The automobile market, especially car market, has shown a very good growth in the two months of February and March, but with the declaration of the Budget 2012-2013, the excise duty went up and sent ripples of grief through the car manufacturing firms and customers alike. The customers and car manufacturing firms were very hopeful that if the Budget of last year wasn’t that good, at least this year’s budget would be in favour if not all that complimenting. But that didn’t happen at all. Amidst all this chaos of raised excise duty one thing never got a set-back and that was the introduction of new vehicles in the automobile market of India, multi-purpose vehicles in particular. If we mark the year 2012 as the ‘year of the multi-purpose vehicles’ in the contemporary history of car market of India, it would not be a wrong fact. There are Mahindra Xylo and Toyota Innova which are the renovated version of multi-purpose vehicle that are already running successfully on the Indian roads, and also are the leading vehicles of this category of automobile. The forthcoming multi-purpose vehicles of Nissan Evalia and Chevrolet Enjoy are anticipated to come into the market anytime in August this year.
Bringing the complete figure of multi-purpose vehicle to seven this year in 2012, are the Ashok Leyland Stile and Mahindra Xylo Mini. The Nissan Evalia is more of a panel van that is a recreated version of Nissan’s NV 200 multi-purpose vehicle. The K9K turbo 1.5 litre diesel engine sits proudly beneath the bonnet of Evalia. This engine is very popular everywhere for letting the driver and passenger have a smooth and easy ride on the fine account of its effective fuel competency and lollygag turbo lag. The added advantage with this vehicle is its sliding doors on the rear which enables getting in and out of the vehicle very quick and easy. In the beginning this multi-purpose vehicle is a seven-seater but if required, more seats can be squeezed into it as a viable option.
The Enjoy multi-purpose vehicle of Chevrolet has been designed and developed by the Chinese partner of General Motors, Wuling which belongs to the China’s SAIC group. The latest MPV of this joint collaboration is sourced with a Fiat MultiJet diesel 1.3 litre engine as well as it comes in petrol 1.4 litre engine as well. This multi-purpose vehicle is only known as Wuling CN100 in China, whereas in the other automobile markets it is well known as the Chevrolet CN100. The pricing has been kept on the same lines of Ertiga of Maruti Suzuki instead of Toyota Innova.
Stile multi-purpose vehicle will also be launched by Ashok Leyland very soon in the same manner as the Nissan’s NV200 MPV has been re-set and re-christened. Evalia’s engine specifications would be introduced in this engine of Stile MPV in annexation to the passenger category. Though Stile’s introduction in the automobile market is for the major purpose of actuating goods, there is a CNG variant of this vehicle also in the plans of the company.
The MPV will let the Indian families have a good choice when going for a car which can accommodate the whole big family and can still be comfortable while being fuel efficient.