New electric cars, sport utility vehicles, and specialty vehicles will flood the Indian market in the first month of 2023. And with the Auto Expo making a triumphant return, the significance of the event will skyrocket. The show went off the air for three years because of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition has been embraced by several of the country’s top automakers, and it is expected that many product debuts and launches will take place there. A number of well-known automakers will skip the show in favour of introducing new models at other venues, although they will still unveil some vehicles.
Citroen eC3
French automaker Citroen is about to release the electrified version of its hatchback c3 called the eC3 to compete with the recently introduced Tata Tiago EV, the most affordable electric hatchback in the country. This vehicle will be introduced by the firm in 2023 at the Auto Expo. Citroen plans to increase its presence in the country by entering the mass market electric vehicle segment. There is talk that if this model does well in India, it would pave the way for the export of similar vehicles to other countries. Test vehicles for the forthcoming model have been sighted on the highways and at public charging stations on multiple occasions. Recently, an image of the eC3’s cabin was published online.
MG Hector Facelift
On January 5, the redesigned 2023 Hector will be unveiled by British automaker Aston Martin, which is owned by Chinese automaker SAIC Motor Corp., Ltd. The updated version of the vehicle has been kept secret by the manufacturer for some time. But just recently, the company’s Halol, Gujarat assembly line put out the 1,00,000th unit of the Hector, a facelifted version of the SUV. The new front grille for the 10,000,000th vehicle was hidden by a thick covering of flowers. There will be significant changes to the front and minor adjustments to the back of the new Hector. MG claims that the SUV’s inside will undergo the most significant transformation.
Mahindra Thar 1.5 4X2
Even though it is one of the country’s largest automakers, Mahindra has decided to skip Auto Expo 2023 in favour of introducing two brand-new vehicles in the new year. The most prolific SUV maker in the country is about to release a cheaper version of its best-selling model, the Thar. A video of a YouTuber piloting a production-ready Mahindra Thar with rear-wheel drive through the streets of Chandigarh has recently gone viral.
This new Mahindra Thar vehicle will have a 1.5-liter four-cylinder diesel engine, down from the 2.2-liter four-cylinder diesel engine found in the four-wheel drive variant. This updated powerplant can generate up to 116 hp and 300 Nm of torque, and it is also found in the Mahindra XUV300.
Mahindra XUV400 EV
The Mahindra Thar 1.5 2WD and the Mahindra XUV400 EV, a new electric subcompact hatchback, will both debut in January of 2023. The new EV is being developed on the same platform as the XUV300 as its ICE predecessor, but with the addition of an electric motor and battery pack. Soon after its release, this electric vehicle will go head to head with Tata’s much acclaimed Nexon EV.
The Mahindra XUV400 Electric will be powered by an electric motor that can provide 310 Nm of peak torque and 147 Bhp of peak power. According to the manufacturer, the electric SUV can travel 456 kilometres on its 39.4 kilowatt-hour battery pack. Zero to one hundred kilometres per hour will be reached in 8.3 seconds, and the maximum speed will be electronically limited to 150 kilometres per hour.
