SUVs have always been one of the most loved cars in India. However, not all SUVs have faired very well in the Indian market. Here’s a list of 8 SUVs that failed in the Indian Market.
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Renault Koleos
The Renault Koleos was a brilliant product from the European carmaker. It was one of the first SUVs that Renault had launched in the Indian market and it came with a 4×2 or a 4×4 option. It was powered by a 2.0L engine that made 170HP and 360 nm of torque. This engine was mated to either a manual or an automatic gearbox.
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Force One
The Force One was advertised by superstar Mr.Amitabh Bachchan himself, however, the SUV could not fair too well in the market. It was powered by a 2.2L engine that made 139HP and 321nm of torque. The Force One was placed on the same platform that we saw on the old-gen Ford Endeavour.
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Mahindra Quanto
Mahindra positioned the Quanto as a small, fun weekend getaway car for the family. However, the Quanto did not work out too well in the Indian market. The Quanto was powered by a 1.5L diesel engine that made about 100HP and 240nm torque.
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Chevrolet Trailblazer
The Trailblazer was a proper, full sized SUV for the Indian market. It came with a 2.8L diesel engine that made around 198HP and a massive 500nm of torque. Chevrolet discontinued the Trailblazer in India after a short 2 year run, mostly due to low sales figures.
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Mahindra Invader
The Invader was primarily a convertible version of the Bolero and it was placed directly against the Maruti Gypsy. Its 2.5L diesel engine made about 68HP and 180nm of torque.
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Mahindra Nuvosport
The Nuvosport was a sub-4 meter SUV, prices between Rs.8-12 Lakhs in India. It came with a 1.5L diesel engine that churned out 100HP and 240nm of torque. It came with the option of either a manual or an AMT transmission.
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Renault Captur
The Captur was a rather stylish and modern looking SUV. However, low sales numbers forced Renault to discontinue the Captur in 2020. It came with a 1.5L petrol and a 1.5L diesel engine. The petrol produced 104HP while the diesel produced 108HP.
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Nissan Terrano
The Teranno was the sister car of the Renault Duster. It looked a little more sophisticated than the Duster and felt more urban. Nissan discontinued the Terrano in 2020 after the new BS6 norms kicked in.
Captur was failure because it didnt look like SUV. Its ironical that the company that created (crossover) SUV segment with Duster failed to come up with SUV body style. This means their success with Duster was just fluke and not by solid market study. This is further validated with Duster outselling Captur even with decade old interiors.
And Terrano cant be called as total failure. It had to be priced more than duster due to arrangement within partners (Renault/Nissan). They came with up successor for Terrano in the name of Kicks which had crossover body style than SUV body style. They didnt even learn why Captur failed.
To success in Indian market, you need SUV body style, not crossover body style. Even if Honda introduce HRV it will fail due to crossover styling.
Hi Arvind, yes that’s right. Indian do prefer a hefty body styling over crossover styled cars
Then why did creta and seltos succeed?
Looks like the Indian audience saw something with the Creta and the Seltos which they didn’t see in the rest of the SUVs mentioned here!