The Nissan Evalia is still trying to strike a chord with the masses in India. While the Evalia is figuring out what we like, its cousin sister from Ashok Leyland has begun its testing phase in Chennai.
A test mule of the Ashok Leyland Stile was caught by Harikishen95, a member of a popular automotive forum TheAutomotiveIndia, doing its testing rounds on the streets of Chennai.
The Stile is to the Nissan Evalia what the Renault Scala is to the Nissan Sunny – a slightly different design of the same car. However, whereas the Nissan Evalia is targeted towards the family audience, the Stile is purely aimed at the commercial segment.
The Stile was unveiled very discreetly at the 2012 New Delhi Auto Expo. No details on the powertrains were available at the time of unveiling. The only detail that we had was the fact that it will be available in diesel and CNG variants.
Some follow up reports suggested that the Stile will not use Nissan 1.5L K9K engine but Dost’s 1.5L three-cylinder engine to keep costs low.
Gladly, Ashok Leyland did confirm that they have planned a myriad of body styles such as an ambulance van, panel vans, courier service vehicle, shuttle bus, hotel shuttles, etc.
Ashok Leyland has planned an early 2013 entry for the Stile in the Indian market. An aggressive price tag of 7 lakhs for the fully loaded model is on the cards.
[Source: Theautomotiveindia.com]
