Daljeet Singh Kataria is a Bangalore-based senior marketing manager for a multinational company. He’s 37 years old, and drives a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) in the city, a Skoda Yeti. And sometimes out of it, as he did recently with a drive through the winding forest roads of the Western Ghats with family and friends. “It was such fun,” he says. “My Yeti made it all so doable and enjoyable.”
Kataria didn’t always have an SUV; he became an owner earlier this year for more than four times the price of his first hatchback. Neither did almost all of the 367,000-odd other Indians who bought similar utility vehicles in 2011-12, representing a growth of 16 per cent over the previous year. Kataria is a shining example of the Indian that automobile manufacturers—desi and foreign—have fallen in love with in these economically challenged times. He’s young and adventurous, and has money to spare for his wants. 2012 was the year of the utility vehicle: April to November sales figures were an incredible 62 per cent higher than in the same period the last year, figures so vigourous that they pulled the six-month period’s crawling passenger car sales graph into a respectable lane.
Given the propensity of the average Indian driver to push the envelope of safety, as filmstars have done on Mumbai’s pavements, that could mean the coming of age of yet another road safety issue. But right now, nobody’s complaining. For it’s a war out there in the big, fat—and still growing—Indian car market. And it’s a whole new one now. Pricing matters as much as size, sometimes more. Features and interior design take precedence over the raw power and offroading abilities of the traditional SUV, and vehicles that can’t be called SUVs and aren’t really cars can be neatly packaged as Multi-Utility Vehicles (MUV) to be lapped up by Indians with multiple needs. “Roads have improved and entire families are now venturing out by road. Utility vehicles make a lot of sense now,” says Sugato Sen, deputy director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM). No wonder then that India’s relatively poor SUV proportion in total number of passenger vehicles sold is beginning to zoom up from last year’s 14 per cent to 2o per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal. Industry experts say this number can and will only go up; a 25 per cent slice seems to be a given within another year, and the bullish say that half of India’s passenger car sales could be UVs in just a few years. “The need was always there but improved roads and growing aspirations of the car buyers have combined to increase volumes. This segment will continue to grow,” says Sen.
The key battle of this latest war is being fought in a brand new theatre, defined on one hand by the tax regulations that make vehicles less than 4 metres long truly easier on the pocket and on the other by the growing aspirations and needs of the car-loving middle class. This is the arena of the compact SUV, where macho mud-crunchers are now available for the cost of an entry-level sedan. “The SUVs doing well in well in India aren’t the bulky, lifestyle symbols of the West; they are homegrown, utilitarian vehicles that address specific needs of the Indian buyer. Some SUV buyers are purely aspirational and they go for the expensive SUVs, but buying one is overwhelmingly a value-for-money deal for most,” says Maruti Udyog Chairman R C Bhargava.
Skirmishes have been long happening but the runaway success of the Renault Duster, an SUV that is half the weight of the averagely butch offroader and starts at less than `8 lakh, was the first shot in the brave, new compact war. Launched in July at what a leading daily then called the “exciting” price of `7.2 lakh for the base petrol model, the Duster has come a long way. More than 5,000 were sold in November, making it the engine of Renault’s India drive with 80 per cent of the company’s total sales. The company was constrained to raise prices by `40,000 in October, but that did little to dampen enthusiasm. “The small SUV segment is beginning to pick up pace with the new models like Quanto. The segment is poised for a great leap as it will appeal to a broader and greater segment of the consumer base. If a stylish SUV is available at price range of `5-6 lakh, takers are many,” says P K Kannan of M&M. Industrialist and politician Jitu Patnaik, the first person to buy a Toyota Fortuner in Odisha, has an equally practical take. “The passion for SUVs stems from the urge to not only travel in style but also, and most importantly, in comfort. All-terrain vehicles are best suited for bumpy, pothole ridden Indian roads,” Patnaik says.
The next big compact that everybody seems to be waiting for is the Ford Ecosport, a compact SUV designed in Brazil, a far cry from its mammoth cousins like the Endeavour. The Ecosoport, light as a small sedan, will be a courageous experiment of sorts, coming with a small but power-packed three-cylinder petrol engine that has been winning awards worldwide. In keeping with the Indian penchant for state-subsidised diesel, Ford will also play safe and offer its proven Duratorq diesel mill in the SUV. The launch has been hyped to perfection, and may be the launch of a whole new era for the company. That the Duster’s success has not had the faintest effect on Ford’s plans only underlines the potential of this class of vehicle. In fact, it is Renault that has reacted before the Ford event, letting it be known that they will launch a true 4-wheel drive of the Duster to coincide with the Ecosport launch.
It’s just not Renault and Ford, however. Everybody wants a piece of the action. Between now and next Christmas almost every car manufacturer will have launched an SUV or MUV, and yet another slew of launches will be in the works for 2014. Some like Mitsubishi, part of the first wave of India’s automobile revolution, have opted out of the sedan segment entirely, and will focus on just SUVs. The pace was set by Mahindra and Mahindra last year with their XUV 500, now a familiar sight on roads. The XUV 500, a butch SUV that has the exotic distinction of being ideated and created by a woman designer, Ramkripa Ananthan, opened to such a rush of bookings that it took even M&M by surprise. Production was ramped up to 5,000 units a month this October to clear the long waiting list. “It’s not just the suspension or comfort. The horsepower that a SUV offers, and its design and build heighten the pleasure of driving like nothing else other,” says Odisha-based engineer Kamaldeep Singh. For Hyderabad-based businessman Hemanth Kumar, driving safety is vital. “The seats of an SUV are higher, the view is wider, and the edges of the car are prominently visible. That helps avoid accidents,” he says.
M&M’s compact run has continued; the Quanto, an intelligently scaled down version of the larger Xylo, their earlier UV, got 12,000 bookings within two months of its September launch. A mini-Aria is next, and a whole new Scorpio will follow in 2014.
Tata Motors, whose Safari has had a small cult following it, has come out with a remodeled version of their imposing SUV. Maruti plans to launch it’s own compact SUV, the XA Alpha, soon. Chevrolet has plans to get its Trax to India, and will launch its Enjoy soon to compete with similar people movers like Maruti’s recent ace, the Ertiga, and Nissan’s Evalia. A late starter, Honda jumped into the diesel game and has already got its all-new act together, and plans to wow the world with a new compact SUV at the Detroit Motor Show next month. Honda’s SUV will have India high in its sights. Bhargava supports the SUV optimism, but has a word of caution. “This section will continue to grow, though the rush may result in overcapacity at some point,” he says.
Share and diesel are the catchwords in the new SUV game. Most manufacturers are using existing structural components like the chassis to build their new cars. For instance, the Duster is built on the chassis of the Logan, the Ecosport uses that of the Fusion, and Suzuki’s Jimny series chassis will probably be incorporated into the XA Alpha. The trick is to share and maximise existing designs by using them as the base for the new generation of SUVs, an experience most manufacturers have had in Europe’s comparable SUV Crossover phenomenon.
Diesel is the big lesson that Indians have taught leading automobile makers. The kitna-deti-hai syndrome that afflicts Indians is addressed only by the cheaper running cost of a diesel vehicle. No surprise then that the new generation of compact SUVs will almost always have diesel options on offer. The subsidy on the fuel may not last, but the Indian love affair with it seems set to go on. Right now, it’s riding a SUV. Utility has married lifestyle, and everybody’s happy.
with inputs from Ammar Alvi, Samiran Saha, Kruthi Gonwar (Hyderabad), Namrata Sahoo (Bhubaneswar), Anil S (Kochi), Sunita Raghu (Chennai)