IndIan Idols

These are four cars that are as Indian as they can get — sub-four-metre, suvs, produced locally and adapted to local taste.

- Rohit Paradkar

Indianisation is one of the keys to bettering the chances of a product’s success in the volatile Indian market. Everything from fast food to five-star properties have had to Indianise their offerings to make them more appealing to the Indian audience. In the automotive world, carmakers have had to go a step further (or backward) and introduce sub-four-metre versions of almost everybody style. SUVs are available in this small packaging too and everyone is trying their level best to get into this space. Those who haven’t managed to take up the challenge of creating a sub-four-metre SUV, have simply bolted on rugged cladding on their hatchbacks to create pseudo-SUV cross-dressers, while a small bunch has managed to create compact SUVs that aim to be just as good as their larger siblings. The most notable of this bunch is the 2017 ICOTY winning Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, the radical Tata Nexon, and the handsome Ford EcoSport - the car that virtually kick-started this genre. These cars have been unfazed by the competition, but there is a new contender on the block that could shake their standings - the Mahindra XUV300.

The XUV300 is, in fact, another great example of Indianisation. It started life as a SsangYong Tivoli, but a lukewarm response to the car at the 2016 Auto Expo (and towards the Korean brand in general in the Indian market), probably led Mahindra to Indianise the Tivoli for the local taste. Much like the Rexton derived Alturas G4. But while the G4 was allowed to retain the Rexton’s gigantic dimensions, the Tivoli was sent to the chop shop to make sure it fits into the sub-four-metre tax-saving bracket to remain competitive against its established rivals.

Design