[buddha]

I keep wondering: what opportunities can astute carmakers act on to meet Indian client needs? Two examples of what I mean:

The LWB E class instantly cracked upon the luxury sedan market on launch

The Innova has been owning the chauffeur driven market forever. And yet the Carnival came in and carved quite a niche for itself in the Innova plus area. The Vellfire too.

So what other opportunities do you see out there? Couple of ideas from my side:

1. An LWB SUV. Could be perfect for Honda's upcoming SUV. Just stretch it out in the middle to create Skoda Superb level legroom and count your money all the way to the bank. Make it obvious that it's LWB. Think E class. Superb. Nissan Sunny. Don't make it discreet. Then you would just become one among a dozen SUVs in the midst of the most competitive segment in India. But stretch it out and you have Uber clear positioning

2. A two row SUV with captain chairs. Perfect for chauffeur driven folks who don't need the size of the Innova. Again Honda has the brand cachet and reliability reputation to take on the Innova in an oblique manner. Could be a variant of the upcoming Honda SUV that I am recommending should only come in as an LWB. But say a Tata could also do it with the Harrier. Cool would be if the third seat in the middle can be attached when needed. Some minivans in the US have this

3. Lounge seating style EV. A lot of cars are pure urban mobility vehicles. Will spend their lifetime in bumper to bumper traffic. Can we get a design that maximizes conversation? Like a modern ambassador style cushy bench seating all around. I think autonomy players are going in this direction but even without self driving what's stopping a pure EV with a flat floorplan from going in this direction? And a stripped out version of this car could become a killer city taxi. Tata - could this help with your 50% EV aspirations?

What other ideas do you guys have?

Mods please merge if it's been discussed before

[GTO]

Quite a thread concept, thanks for sharing! Totally agreed with the LWB luxury cars which are simply perfect for India.

My suggestion = removeable hard-tops. We already have two great offroaders on sale (Thar, Gurkha) and there's another one coming up (Jimny). I bought a Thar Convertible only because I love opening the top up in the early morning or late at night. Man, the joy of open-top cruising! It's so convenient & easy that I've already flipped the top open 4 times in a month. But the convertible does have many disadvantages. 75% of Thar sales are from the hard-top which is difficult to remove & store. A removable hard-top would greatly solve that problem.

Like the Wrangler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RU1AO52oKs

[one-77]

Originally Posted by buddha

:

1. An LWB SUV. Could be perfect for Honda's upcoming SUV.

The Hyundai Tucson launched in India is just that. It’s the LWB version, with a stretched 2,755 mm wheelbase compared to the SWB which is 2,680 mm.

[RedTerrano]

Going by my personal experience, I feel there is one major pain point in cars.

Headroom
There are tall people in India.
I am 6' and used to absolutely love the WagonR tall boy design. Sadly, in the Terrano, there is not much headroom. After an initial (very) painful experience, I swiftly learnt to be very careful on bumpy roads.

A design with sufficient headroom to accommodate tall people will be certainly appreciated. I have driven/travelled in numerous types of cars, and have rarely enjoyed the spacious headroom like the WagonR. (It's far worse in the rear seat, with the sloping roofs further cramping you down.)

[Axe77]

Lovely thread and you've covered some great points. At the risk of repetition, for me personally this is what I'd like to see:

1. MUVs / SUVs with face to face 2nd row seating: ... with decent boot space after accounting for this. I'm thinking the likes of a Carnival having this option or even a plus Innova. Considering the number of chauffeur driven large families that use these vehicles such seating would have a fair few takers I believe.

2. More LWB SUVs: Its incredibly hard to get any SUV with a decent second row with uber comfortable under-thigh support. I'd really like some customised luxury SUVs which provide excellent 2nd row comfort. Take the X3 for example or even GLC. The LWB 3 series has a MUCH more comfortable back seat. Same if you consider a Superb vs Kodiaq / Tiguan or even a Camry vs Fortuner.

3. More strong hybrid offerings: Diesels are going to get increasingly undesirable and given our market's love for SUVs and MUVs, pure petrol offerings are impractical for high mileage cars. Strong hybrids really have the potential to take the market by storm if they become more mainstream.

4. More notchbacks & stationwagons: I love the practicality cars like the Octavia and 3 GT offer and really miss the exclusive Octavia Combi from years ago. However I'm conscious I'm a distinct minority in this preference and this may have limited appeal in the Indian market.

[The Mechanic]

A metal Engine Guard / Sump Guard.

Why??. Because most of the cars in India will at some point encounter poor surfaced roads, no roads, debris on road, poorly made markings, poorly made speed humps etc.



For Reference,

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...e-6000-km.html (Why you should get an engine guard | Damaged oil pan leads to Maruti Ertiga engine failure @ 6000 km)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...underbody.html (Stone destroys my car's underbody)

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/techn...le-engine.html (Ameo suffers underbody hit | VW is recommending replacing the whole engine)

[bullitt1]

Most of the foreign brands have a very good car portfolio in the overseas market with very good features. If only they launch some feasible cars here instead of just keep on guaging, one would automatically get all those features unless they are heavily stripped.

[Malyaj]

My wish list:

1. Right hand side arm rest for the driver. In most cars I find the armrest on the door to be too far away. And I am not even slightly built.
   
2. Front passenger seat that reclines (almost) completely. I understand this may require the seat behind to be foldable too.
   
3. Memory seats to become more mainstream. I would take this over an air purifier in my Seltos any day.

[Cresterk]

I like your ideas but some of them have already been implemented without much success:

1. LWB SUV : Mercedes GLE sold in India is the LWB version that is not sold anywhere else in the world. That's right, even in Germany, you can only get the SWB version. What's odd though is the LWB version only gets 2 rows of seats without the option for 3 unlike the SWB abroad or the previous gen sold in India. Clearly it is meant to be an executive SUV over a family one. It still sells decently well despite the X5 and XC90 being in the same price bracket.


An SUV for the chauffeur driven. The concept itself is great. The Hyundai Tucson is also available in the LWB version only but sadly has little success. Possibly due to Hyundai ruining their image in India by pulling a Maruti and using low strength steel in their new cars along with the various brake issues faced by Creta owners and the infamous white paint peeling issues etc all of which they would rather deny than fix. This has clearly cemented Hyundai as cheap in India which is probably why they have so much trouble selling anything above 25L.

2. 4 seater SUV with captain's seats: A decent idea but not sure how well it would click with the masses since people here want a big car that can fit their entire family. It is already available here as the XC90 excellence and some model of the Range Rover that I can't currently recall. They were all priced extremely high but still had a few high rollers buying it.

In the cheaper segments, some of the 3 row SUVs with captain's seats like the ScorpioN are basically 2 row cars due to how unusable the 3rd row is. I remember someone here had already removed the 3rd row entirely. Would probably have been interesting if they gave the option to get rid of the 3rd row in the higher variants and offered it with a more spacious and comfortable second row.


And now an idea of my own : Fun, cheap electric cars with RWD and no other big features. I would go through tyres in a month

[Kosfactor]

Air Suspension in the ~30L range should be good to have.

Given how ADAS is coming up in many vehicles, I think Air suspension may not be that complicated.

[kaushalswarup]

A wish list of what manufacturers can make standardised:

1. Proper cooled seats: seats that provide actual cooling, as opposed to a meagre level of ventilation, will actually help ensure the driver remains fresh and reduce fatigue. While this feature is being brought into more and more mass-market cars, hoping that actual cooled seats are the way forward.
2. LWB SUV in the sub-25L space: having a vehicle that has both the ground-clearance of an SUV, the ease of ingress & egress of an SUV, and benefiting from the extra legroom, would be very useful for people, especially as an urban-centric vehicle.
3. Blindspot alerts: very useful in India, especially with the unpredictability of Indian motorists.
4. Integrated dashcams: having factory-fitted dashcams that can come integrated into the IRVM, and at the rear, will help to ensure seamless monitoring & evidence capturing in the case of any road-mishaps.
5. Return of physical buttons: while this may not be the way forward as per the growing trend, the concept of physical buttons and having a tactile experience as a driver is very important especially in the Indian context. Urban driving is already quite stressful and one needs to be completely, if not hyper-vigilant. Unnecessary touch screen/button based controls causes distractions from driving.
6. Strong-Hybrids: The success of good mileage that the recent grand vitara/Hyryder hybrids have been seeing, proves the point that hybrids are the best of both worlds. PHEVs can also be the option forward. Pure EV vehicles, without a stable & widespread charging infrastructure, make no sense.

[where_to_next]

A compact and stylish petrol strong hybrid for city dwellers.

[shobhit.shri]

Let's be a little more ambitious.

Sometimes I fantasize about a decently made, electric, 2 - seater hatchback with a business class-like passenger seat. Keep a chauffeur and it will be better than having a Ferrari for 90% of daily drives. Nothing fancy - basically an RE with a reclining seat, AC, and the safety of a metal cocoon. I think they can easily make it for <10L.

Thing is, we have abundant cheap labor and a car buying class that is just tired of our cities and roads. We need to bring the logic of Innvoa/Carnival within 10L.

[gauravanekar]

I believe India needs a EV which is ground up designed for the purpose.
Let’s take model 3 as base vehicle for this thought experiment and modify according to Indian requirement.

1. Lot smaller, size equivalent to a Nexon is great.
2. No autonomous driving kit ( to drive cost down)
3. Single motor FWD, since it’s doesn’t snow in most places in India, there is really no need for 4WD
4. Normal coil spring suspension, no need for air suspension
5. Performance equivalent to Nexon EV and no more. This is extremely helpful in managing battery discharge rate and thereby reducing the need to have expensive active cooling system
6. Feature set equivalent to a top end Nexon and nothing more
7. Small resistive heater for the mild winters we have, not required to spend a lot of R&D trying to optimise heating system through a heat pump
8. With clever engineering, if possible try achieve performance and reliability targets using passive cooling only
9. Have a small frunk for 1 or 2 cabin size suitcase
10. Save weight by eliminating panoramic sunroof
11. Wide flat bench seat with good thigh support, if thigh support is good no need for bucket seats in the rear (making the car truly a 5seater)


A car like this will do off shelf if launched by top 3 manufacturers in India.

[TorqMaster]

A diesel hybrid for India especially in a small size engine would serve a lot of people.

Sliding doors instead of swing doors. This will really help with parking spots and avoid those bumps and dents on the car doors. It will also prevent silly two wheeler accidents.

Powered seats plus everything else for the front passenger and immediate rear passenger. Currently all of these goodies are aimed at the driver seat. In a country like ours our cars are driven by Drivers/Chauffeurs and the owners need to be pampered .

Automatic Seatbelts . I cannot imagine how this could be possible but it needs to be. Something like Mazda’s technology from 90s.