Updated Nissan Evalia: AL Stile reveals the expected feature additions

17/07/2013 - 09:48 Nissan Evalia, Nissan Anjan Ravi

The Ashok Leyland Stile was unveiled yesterday by none other than Mr. Carlos Ghosn, CEO Renault-Nissan Alliance and Mr. G P Hinduja, Co-Chairman, Hinduja Group. One look at the Stile and we know what to expect in the updated Nissan Evalia which should be launching soon, sometime by the festive season maybe.

Nissan Evalia window — 'Butterfly' type windows on the Evalia does not go down well with us Indians.

1. Sliding windows on the rear doors: This is perhaps the Evalia's biggest issue, especially in a country like India. The rear windows on the Evalia are of the 'butterfly' opening type. This would be addressed in the updated Evalia, however the Stile seems to have gotten the update already.

Ashok Leyland Stile sliding window — Stile sports sliding windows which should find its way onto the Evalia.

2. Captain's Chairs on the second row: The Stile will be available in 7 and 8 seater configurations. If you take a look at the segment leader, the Toyota Innova, a significant portion of its owners like to relax in their individual captain's seats, which we must tell you are very comfortable. Nissan would like to offer the option of these bucket seats, at least on the top-end variants of the updated Evalia.

Ashok Leyland Stile captains seats — Captain's chairs are becoming a fad in the MPV segment. The Stile sports it, why not the Evalia?

Nissan Evalia second row seats — Evalia comes with a bench seat for the second row. Also note the lack of aircon vents/blowers.

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3. Rear Wiper/Washer and defogger: Even the top-end XV variant of the Evalia does not get these features. The Stile showed us all three features in place!

Ashok Leyland Stile rear — The rear of the Stile shows the wiper, washer and the defogger.

4. AC vents for the second row: The top-end models of the Evalia come with AC vents for the third row. The Stile which was shown to us yesterday came with the dedicated vents for the second row. We certainly think the updated Evalia would carry a similar arrangement.

Ashok Leyland Stile rear AC vents — Stile sports aircon vents/blowers for the second row.

5. Conventional glovebox: The Evalia has an exposed glovebox and the Stile we saw had a conventional glovebox with a lid. It would be safe to expect Nissan to provide features which are mandatory in the 21st century.

Nissan Evalia dashboard — Evalia's glovebox is exposed.

Nissan themselves have acknowledged that they are in the process of getting customer feedback for the Evalia. Clearly the sales of the MPV is falling very short of what Nissan expected.