CarToq sources: Toyota Etios Liva Cross confirmed for India

Snapshot: CarToq sources have revealed that Toyota Kirloskar Motors Limited will launch the Etios Liva Cross in India shortly. The car is currently being filmed at Pune for a TV Commercial (TVC), with the second leg of the shoot to commence tomorrow. The TVC will see the Etios Liva Cross showing off its ground clearance and crossover-like appeal through various stunts.  The launch is likely to be held at the upcoming 2014 Indian Auto Expo.

Toyota India will launch the Etios Liva Cross shortly. The car is already on sale in the Brazilian car market. In a nutshell, the Etios Liva Cross is a Liva hatchback with body cladding and other visual cues to make it look more like a crossover than a plain jane hatchback. The car will rival the likes of the Volkswagen Cross Polo and the upcoming Fiat Punto Cross, two other hatchbacks with body kits to make them look like crossovers.

Interestingly, the first murmurs about Toyota India launching the Etios Liva Cross here surfaced just a month ago. Back then, we had wondered whether the Etios Cross is under Toyota’s consideration for India and a month later, the car actually arrives here. Here’s a link to CarToq’s previous report.

The launch of the Etios Liva Cross in India isn’t surprising, considering Toyota India’s stance of persisting with facelifts and upgrades of its existing range of cars until 2015, when all-new products will begin arriving. This strategy of Toyota India has been charted out keeping in mind the sales slowdown in the Indian aut0 sector. With the 2014 General Elections just months away and a clear political formation far from being a certainty, car makers –  like many other industries – are choosing to play the wait-and-watch game.

Will crossover styled hatchbacks work in India? Click here to read CarToq’s expert analyzing this recent trend.

While the Liva Cross is sold in Brazil with a 1.5 liter petrol engine, the car is likely to get the 1.4 liter D-4D turbo diesel engine for the Indian car market. Equipped with a fixed geometry turbocharger, the 1.4 liter D-4D turbo diesel engine, which is used on the likes of the Etios sedan and Liva hatchback, outputs 67 Bhp-170 Nm. Expect a similar state of tune on the Etios Liva Cross as well.

Click here to check out CarToq’s video review of the Volkswagen Cross Polo.

In terms of price and positioning, the Etios Liva Cross is likely to sit at the very top of the Liva hatchback line up, which incidentally was bolstered with two new variants -VD and VS SP*- recently. Expect an ex-showroom Delhi price of about 7.5 lakh rupees for the fully loaded Etios Liva Cross. The Etios Liva Cross is likely to feature all the recent additions seen on the VD SP* variant of the Liva Diesel.

Traditionally, crossover styled hatchbacks haven’t done well in the Indian car market. Cases in point include the now discontinued Fiat Palio Adventure (a station wagon model with crossover-like styling) and Skoda Fabia Scout, and the slow selling Volkswagen Cross Polo. Click here to for CarToq’s Volkswagen Cross Polo road test and review.