Nissan to develop a Toyota Innova-rivalling MPV soon

ABU DHABI: The Toyota Innova may be the most popular MPV in the world to date, but things are going to change soon. Nissan is currently looking to build a new MPV which would be competing against Innova directly.

Over the years, the Toyota Innova hasn’t had a lot of competitors to deal with and hence managed to present a near monopoly in the segment. There were some potential competitors in the form of the Adventure and Crosswind, which were later discontinued due to some strict emission laws laid down.

Mr. Hiroshi Nagasuka, who is the General Manager of the Product Planning section of Light Commercial Vehicle of Nissan, did give a nod at the speculation that stated Nissan’s commitment to a new MPV development. However, there are high chances that this new Toyota-rival would not be introduced anytime soon as it is just in its studying phase presently.

The reason why we thought and talked about Nissan working on a new MPV is the trend that we have always seen in the automobile industry. In most cases, we have seen the automakers use a particular body-on-frame for more than one vehicle. This format is followed in the D-Max and mu-X by Isuzu, Ranger, and Everest by Ford, Strada and Montero Sport by Mitsubishi and Navara and Terra by Nissan. However, Toyota is the only company to have the same body-on-frame for three cars, that are the Hilux, Fortuner and the Innova.

Hence, we can expect the same to be followed by Nissan by developing what would be the third addition after Navara and Terra. In fact, the spokesperson at Nissan also hinted at developing this new car under the alliance with Mitsubishi.

Apart from this, the new Toyota-rivalling MPV would also serve as a huge prospect for the company in a global arena, especially in developing automobile markets in the ASEAN countries.