The Mahindra Group-owned Korean carmaker SsangYong has begun testing the new Tivoli in India. The SsangYong Tivoli crossover was unveiled internationally in January this year. In May, our sister publication, Autocar India, had revealed that the manufacturer was evaluating the launch of this crossover in India. This is the first time that this model has been seen testing on Indian roads. However, the crossover's India launch has not been confirmed yet by Mahindra & Mahindra.
For international markets, the Tivoli comes with the choice of 1.6-litre petrol and 1.6-litre diesel engines, mated to an Aisin-sourced six-speed auto or a six-speed manual gearbox. These engines are part of Mahindra's all-new mFalcon engine family which was unveiled in India with the KUV100 compact SUV.
The Tivoli is around 4.2 metres long, has an aggressively designed cabin, and gets a long list of features. This presents a challenge of positioning the Tivoli in the Indian market because if it is priced higher than the Renault Duster, the crossover could end up competing against Mahindra’s own flagship, the XUV500.
The SsangYong Tivoli is expected to be unveiled at Auto Expo 2016 and get a market launch thereafter.