August 29, 2014: Japan based automaker Isuzu Motors India is getting ready to announce a seven-seater multi-purpose vehicle or MPV. It appears like this vehicle is aimed to compete with the highly popular Toyota Innova and take over the same in a couple of years. This way, Isuzu can extend its competition in South East Asia with the largest car maker in the region.
Talking about the new model that the Isuzu Motors India is speculated to be developing, it is said to be a premium MPV with the codename RU30 aimed to grab a larger chunk of the booming MPV market. The maker has invested a huge sum of Rs 3,000 crore in a local manufacturing unit located inSriCity(Tada) in Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from this, sources familiar to the matter have revealed that the firm plans to localize its bestselling D-MAX pickup truck from Thailand in India.
The production of the RU30 is slated to debut in October 2016 around the festive season and it is claimed that the auto maker will be producing 40,000 units of the MPV every year and 20,000 units of the pickup truck respectively.
Regarding the same, Takashi Kikuchi, President and Managing Director, Isuzu Motors India, claimed that the firm has planned two products for the Indian automobile market and the list includes MU-7 in the SUV segment and D-MAX in the pickup truck segment respectively. However, he does not reveal any further details keeping the product plans of the company intact.
With the launch of the RU30 MPV, Isuzu appears to join those multi-purpose vehicles that are slated to hit the roads around the same time. Its direct rival Toyota will be prepping its new generation Innova based on a global 640 A platform, whereas Mahindra & Mahindra’s Xylo-U421 is in the final stages of development. In the same time frame, we also expect other manufacturers such as Hyundai Motor India and M&M stables to come up with their offerings.
Isuzu is believed to achieve good sales as the multi-purpose vehicle market segment is growing with 1.3 to 1.4 lakh units selling inIndiaevery year with new entrants such as Honda Mobilio and Renault Lodgy.
