Showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo in early January, Nissan has moved to the final stage of the Evalia's development - sending it to a production line.
Nissan will begin the roll out of the Innova basher at the Oragadam plant in Chennai in August. The market introduction shall take place around this period. Nissan has not talked of a petrol engine, but they will be keeping in mind that a policy change in the government can reverse the market direction overnight.
See high resolution images of the Nissan Evalia
Sold as the NV200 in other markets, the Evalia makes Nissan in India a multi-segment player. The Micra and Sunny were well received mainly for their frugal, yet spirited diesel engine, and Nissan will be banking on the same engine to close in on the Innova.
Ashok Leyland's version of the Evalia, dubbed Stile, is also in the pipelines. Its introduction is scheduled in mid-2013. The Ashok Leyland Stile runs on the same mechanical components with the difference lying in its less-equipped interiors. To have daylight between the two models, the Ashok Leyland wears a different face and sports body graphics.
Nissan states that features such as intelligent key and rear view camera will be incorporated on the Evalia. Power of the K9K diesel engine will be upped to about 90-100bhp.
