Evalia-tion

Taxi.

It’s a dreaded word, both for a car manufacturer and a car owner. No one wants to be associated with a commercial vehicle in a market where the investment in four-wheeled mobility stands second only to the investment in a house. Any of the Nissan officials who began reading this article will have winced at reading that first word – but bear with me. The Nissan Evalia, nee NV200, has become famous for being exactly that – a taxi. New York has welcomed it, as has London. And to quote a spokesperson of a car manufacturer known for producing commercial vehicles, there is no better way to verify the fact that a vehicle is reliable, affordable to run, fuel efficient and comfortable than to have the taxi market embrace it.

Will the Evalia become the personal vehicle Nissan wants it to become? The Innova has managed this split personality of family vehicle and commercial vehicle very successfully. Nissan took us to Bangalore to drive the Evalia to let us judge for ourselves if the Evalia is capable of something similar. The answer, as expected, wasn’t easy.

There’s no easy way to put this: the Evalia looks strange at best, especially that rear three-quarter view. It is boxy and high. The headlamps and grille in isolation look really nice, but their slinky design doesn’t seem to gel with the rest of the more-vertical-than-horizontal car. From the side, the Evalia looks exactly like what it is; a van. The bonnet doesn’t run into the windshield at the same angle to the ground like the Innova’s appears, and the roofline remains horizontal until the vertical rear. The side doesn’t look plain thanks to the crease that runs from the front wheel arch to the bottom of the window, and the crease in the sliding doors that runs into the middle rail is a nice touch. The wheels are tiny in comparison to the vehicle, an effect that is exaggerated by the increased-for-India ride height that leaves quite a bit of space between the tyre and the wheel arch. The rear three-quarter and rear give you the full ‘boxy-van effect’, and the sheer height of the rear combined with the small, low-mounted tail-lamps makes me think that the design could have been bettered. Again, the tail-lamps are nice in isolation but their curvy lenses don’t gel with the straight-edged panels at the rear.

Nissan says that 15-inch wheels (an upsize from the 14-inchers you see here) will be made available as a dealer option, so that car-on-castors visual effect will be reduced significantly. Those tyres are light truck tyres, so we’re not sure what option will be available with the wheel upsize.

The Evalia has one thing in spades: space. This is one of the main reasons it managed to land the job of NYC and London taxi, and it has deservedly got it. Walk into the Evalia – you don’t have to climb up or step down into it – and you’re presented with vast amounts of legroom. It isn’t often that I can claim to be truly comfortable in a car, but the Evalia feels so big on the inside, it half makes you want to have an intercom system for the driver. The seats are comfortable and provide support in all the right places, but the third row, despite the low floor, has very little under-thigh support. The front seat gives the occupants a lovely sense of space thanks to the large windscreen and windows. The second row doesn’t get windows as large as the front doors, but they are reasonably large. The sliding doors are a good thing because parking in narrow spaces is not an issue any more, and entry and exit are so much easier. It is a bad thing because you won’t get power windows on these doors. In fact, you don’t get roll-down windows at all, or even those horizontally sliding ones that open half the window the way the ones do in the Maruti Omni, the other car in India with sliding doors. The butterfly windows will certainly have an unhappy bunch sitting in the second row, including children and dogs, which will no doubt occupy the second row if the Evalia is to be used as a family vehicle. Another surprising omission is air-conditioning ducting for the second row; the third row gets a necessary vent, but we have been given to understand that the second-row blower will be a dealer-level option. We aren’t clear at this point whether it will be similar to the recirculating unit in the Sunny or a true AC duct like in the competition, but we suspect it will be the former. The sooner Nissan starts offering sliding windows for the second row (and hopefully butterfly windows for the third, like the competition) in the Evalia, the better.

There is an adequate amount of storage space in the Evalia, but certain glaring omissions remain – there is no glovebox lid, for example. There is no other closed storage space other than the 'secret compartment' in between the front seats, so there isn’t any lockable place in the cabin where you can keep valuables or the car’s documents out of sight. The airline-style tray tables are a nice touch, but we don’t imagine they will be used very often in our market. All the rear seats fold away to make a massive load bay, and the low loading lip makes it easy to get heavy things into the boot. Nissan claims that even with all three rows in place, two suitcases can be loaded into the boot space behind the third row.

Sitting in the driver’s seat offers a sense of déjà vu. The steering wheel is the same unit from the Micra and Sunny, but it is at a more van-like angle to the driver. The switchgear, again, is shared with the Micra and Sunny, so it all is familiar. The best bits are the keyless entry, and the multi-function display. The former allows you to keep the key in your pocket and drive, although getting the steering to unlock is a task we never managed to do successfully during the short time we spent with the Evalia. There is a fail-safe in the form of the key which can be inserted into the ignition/steering lock, which saved us from getting egg on our faces during the drive. The multi-function display is a colour display which provides a lot of information to the driver, and doubles up as the screen for the feed from the reversing camera when reverse gear is engaged. These two features will be provided only on the top-end variants, sadly.

The driver’s seat is comfortable, but if you’re tall, you’ll find your right knee fouling with the door moulding for the power window switches. The steering adjusts for rake but not reach, the norm in the segment. The mirrors are usefully large, although the vertical layout is something we haven’t seen for a while on a new car. They are electrically adjustable but do not fold electrically.

The top-end version carries a plain-looking audio head unit that doesn’t appeal much visually, but the good news is that it is a standard 2-DIN size, which means easy replacement for those who want a better head unit. The audio quality is quite good for a budget system, but if you like your audio good, you’ll want to upgrade. That said, it still is one of the best stock units available in the segment.

Nissan has made ABS and airbags standard across the range, a welcome move. The top-end variant gets two airbags.

Nissan’s 1461cc K9K engine does duty under the unusually high bonnet of the Evalia. With 85 bhp and 200 Nm, Nissan claims it offers the best performance in the segment – and claims 19-odd kmpl as per ARAI certification, which is a sight more than the competition, the Mahindra Xylo and Toyota Innova. This is partly due to the Evalia’s weight which being less, automatically contributes to fuel efficiency. The other is the transverse-engined, front-drive layout, which again offers less transmission losses over the front-engined, rear drive layout of the competition. Another place where it scores points is in the chassis department, the monocoque construction placing it firmly in the same corner as the Maruti Ertiga and opposite to the ladder-frame chassis that makes up the Chevrolet Tavera, Mahindra Xylo and Toyota Innova. This makes it reasonably enjoyable to drive. Heck, it even can be fun to drive if you can get your head around the fact that it rolls like a small boat on a choppy ocean. However, this roll is one of the very few grouses with the car, the other being the tall gearing combined with the turbo-lag that played spoilsport when we drove up the mountain road that was the last stretch on the drive. This isn’t something we can say is a problem, though; the levels of power and torque are on par with the competition, and the fuel efficiency will negate any complaints you might have about the lack of power. Besides, Nissan claims the Evalia is quicker to 100kmph than any of its competition, and we are inclined to believe the company. Most of that time is probably gained thanks to the slick cable-operated gearshift, which allows you to change gears really quickly and effortlessly. Of course, there will always be the people who will say that you don’t get the ‘manly’ feel of the rod-linkage ‘boxes – but the Evalia’s gearshift is great. The engine noise intrudes, however, and the four-speaker audio system did an appreciable job of taking our attention off the engine noise.

Acceleration is surprisingly good, and the cable-operated gearshift makes rapid progress easy. Our fuel-efficiency-minded market gets tall gearing, which I found a little annoying on the hill section because while going uphill, I had to either rev the engine a lot in first and modulate the throttle carefully, or shift to second and risk dropping the revs so much that turbo-lag was very evident. All this with just four people and no luggage in the vehicle; I expect it will only get worse with a full load. This is, however, a minor grouse because users will not encounter this situation frequently. The brakes have great bite – so much so that both drivers in our car ended up slowing or stopping much before we intended. A little less assist will help with feel and modulation, though it might take away slightly from the ‘easy to drive’ pitch that Nissan has for the car. The steering is very light and accurate, and makes throwing the Evaila around corners fun.

Remember the bit about it rolling like a boat? It isn’t as bad as it sounds once you trust the car. Just like the Micra, the initial few inches of suspension travel are really very soft, but once it is leaned over it settles and imparts confidence to the driver. It changes direction really quite well, too, and the predictable front-drive understeer is reassuring. The Innova still remains the most fun-to-drive MUV but we’re not going to deduct points from the Evalia because that isn’t what MUVs are supposed to do. But we sure are delighted when they end up being fun to drive, and the Evalia is fun for the person at the wheel.

At an expected price of Rs 8-10 lakhs, the Evalia makes a good case for itself when compared to its competition, the Toyota Innova and Mahindra Xylo with its performance, space and excellent fuel economy. However, that is pricing that is merely expected, not confirmed. Nissan India has had bittersweet experiences with the Indian market; the Micra hasn’t been well received whereas the Sunny is very popular. There’s also no mention of the elephant in the corner: the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga. Will the Evalia’s looks be accepted by the public at large? Will it get that second-row blower and sliding windows as standard soon enough? Will it be priced right? We’ll know all the answers during its pre-Diwali launch.