Crossover cars are good products with plenty of practical advantages, such as a spacious cabin & bigger boot, along with making ingress/ egress easier. They are also easier to drive when compared to other cars such as sedans as they offer better visibility, and crossovers also have better road presence.
Basically, a crossover is a vehicle built on a platform with increased ride height and better ground clearance to help tackle more terrains. These SUVs are practical along with a list of advantages, but they did not catch up well in India; we even witnessed the S-cross being discontinued. Let’s see why:
No Mechanical Upgrades
When manufacturers enrolled a crossover version of their hatchbacks, such as the Etios Cross, Aventura, Cross Polo & Tiago NRG, they did not cater any mechanical updates to the car. If you are making an SUV crossover from a hatchback, an added power punch is necessary for the engine. As SUVs are known to be significant and powerful, cosmetic upgrades did not cut it.
Also Read: 5 Good Discontinued Crossover Cars In India
Manufactures added beefy cladding throughout the car’s sides along with roof rails on the top and slightly increased the ride height & ground clearance. The added ground clearance was a must as it is the vital factor of a crossover. Later, after a year of Aventura’s launch, Fiat realised this mistake, they updated it with Abarth’s heart, and the new 1.4litre T-jet petrol engine churned out 140hp, which was significantly more than the initial 90hp diesel engine.
Hiked Price
We also lost another crossover SUV from the market recently, the Maruti Suzuki S-Cross. The manufacturers just hiked the price for these crossovers, which had nothing different than some cosmetic upgrades made to give an SUV feel, and some did not even increase the ground clearance. Manufacturers did not precisely justify the hiked prices in this way as they were more of pseudo-SUVs.
Also Read: SUV vs Crossover in India | The Difference Explained
It was the most expensive car from the manufacturer, and we all know Maruti is known for affordable cars. It had the same previously stated issue; it had the exact technical specifications as Brezza, which was cheaper. It was better dimensions & feature-wise, but the rest engine capabilities were the same for a hiked price. It had plenty of first in segment features, but the sales never caught up in the 7 years of running.
Well Established Markets
Another reason we can add is how India is obsessed with SUVs, and hatchbacks also have a great demand, but both are wanted separately. The Indian market for SUVs has immensely grown in the last few years with compact SUVs, and now we have the premium segment also getting new candidates such as the Jeep Meridian.
Also Read: 5 Reasons Why Indians Are Ditching Small Cars For SUVs
The SUV enthusiasts would always go for actual SUVs with better power rather than crossovers. While the hatchback segment is also well established with candidates such as Balneo, Altroz & i20. Hence with already well-established markets for both segments, a crossover mixing both segments was not exactly understood or appreciated by the people here.
