Premium lounges on haute wheels

GREATER NOIDA: It’s club class on four wheels for those travelling between cities or moving around crowded metros. As affluence spreads in India and the road infrastructure sees a marked improvement, demand for the all-comfortable people carrier seems to be slowly building up, prompting companies like Toyota, MG Motors and even luxury name Lexus to position their models in this category.

On display at the Auto Expo here is the Vellfire – a seven-seater premium people carrier from Toyota – as well as the LM four-seater from Lexus and the MIFA 9 electric from MG. While Toyota already sells the 5m-long Vellfire in India with an ex-showroom price of around Rs 1 crore, Lexus and MG are testing the waters at the Expo to see if it makes a business case to offer vehicles that are longer and roomier than conventional MPVs such as the Innova.

Naveen Soni, president of Lexus in India, says the company has brought in the LM to gauge customer response to the luxury product, which promises a “mobile luxury office” for those willing to indulge. The LM, which is also around 5m in length, promises privacy and high comfort and comes with only captain seats at the rear.

“We will be launching the new global LM in India that offers complete privacy as there will be a dark screen between the driver’s area and the passenger cabin. The idea to have only two seats at the back — instead of two separate rows — is that customers get complete reclinable seats whichare equipped with massagers. Also, the passengers get a central control panel apart from entertainment screens where one can connect to the office, or watch movies,” said Soni.
But while the Vellfire and LM are petrol MPVs, theMG MIFA 9 is a full-sized pure electric MPV. It was launched at the Commercial Vehicle Show, 2022, and MG says that the model is the industry’s “first intelligent driving housekeeper, which automatically recognisesdriving style through data and scene driving”.

The MIFA 9 boasts a range of up to 520km on a single charge with the MIFA acronym reflecting the vehicle’s key attributes: Maximum, Intelligent, Friendly and Artistic.

Rajeev Chaba, MD of MG India, said MPVs are receiving an encouraging customer response and witnessing significant growth. “Considering the current sentiment of the market around MPVs, we feel that MIFA 9 could just be the right product for the Indian EV ecosystem. We are evaluating our global range of electrics and new-energy vehicles for our forthcoming line-up and MIFA 9 is also in consideration. ”
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