evo India Podcast

Mitsubishi sold its last car in India in January 2020. Four years later, a post about the Pajero got 4,000 likes and 80 comments in four hours. That is the Mitsubishi story in India — great products, massive goodwill, zero strategy.
In this episode of the evo India Podcast, Sirish Chandran and Aninda Sardar go through the complete Mitsubishi India journey. The Lancer that arrived in 1998 with independent rear suspension on a rally-derived chassis and beat the Honda City in every handling test — just not in engine feel. The Mitsubishi Cedia that shared its platform with the Evo 6 and 7. And the chairs are actually from the rally car that Sirish drove. The Pajero whose two-tone red-and-white paint job was not a design choice — the paint booth at the Tiruvallur facility was too small to fit the whole car, so the doors were painted separately. The Pajero Sport, which had more power and more torque than the Toyota Fortuner, cost ₹5 lakh more and never had a chance. The Mitsubishi Outlander had column-mounted paddle shifters borrowed from rally cars, a Rockford Fosgate sound system, and a CVT gearbox that killed it. And the Evo 10 — India's most beloved performance car, the one that beat the Mercedes-AMG CLA45 in a back-to-back comparison and upset Mercedes considerably in the process — priced at ₹60 lakh and sold in numbers so small Mitsubishi had to discount the remaining units into oblivion.
Sirish also talks about the five days he spent waiting in Coimbatore for Mitsubishi to bring the Evo 10 to the track, his Cedia rally car that gave him the foundation for everything he knows about car dynamics, and the honest verdict on whether Mitsubishi will ever come back to India.0:00 Precap
0:33 Introduction: Mitsubishi's journey in India
2:09 The history of Hindustan Motors and the JV with Mitsubishi
7:12 History of the Mitsubishi Lancer
10:14 Mitsubishi's motorsport history
10:52 Sirish's memories of the Mitsubishi Lancer
12:35 Mitsubishi Lancers rallying in India
17:01 Mitsubishi Lancer Invex
18:22 Mitsubishi Lancer stopped and in came Cedia
26:13 The arrival of Mitsubishi Pajero
29:28 The Mitsubishi and Jeep connection
30:45 The variants of the Mitsubishi Pajero
34:56 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport
35:37 The moment when the Montero was stopped and reintroduced
36:22 The missed opportunity at a Fortuner rival
38:01 Mitsubishi Outlander
41:31 evo India's own Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X
48:42 Mitsubishi has an India website
50:11 The sad ending to the Mitsubishi story in India
51:22 Mitsubishi in the Renault-Nissan alliance could bring the Pajero back
53:14 Mitsubishi and TVS tie-up

Mahindra has just unveiled its Global Pickup - the Scorpio Lifestyler (just Lifestyler in international markets). But the lifestyle pickup phenomenon has not really caught on in the last 19 years; Mahindra thumbstarted the segment way back in 2007 with the Scorpio Getaway. Since then we have had the Tata Xenon, Isuzu D-Max and V-Cross and of course the Toyota Hilux. Toyota, in fact, just launched the updated Hilux. But the segment remains at less than 5,000 units a year. Editorial Director Sirish Chandran and Senior Editor Aninda Sardar dive deep into the pickup story in India. In this episode:•⁠ ⁠What the Mahindra Scorpio Lifestyler is•⁠ ⁠Where the pick up story started•⁠ ⁠Remembering the Tata Mobile and what happened to it•⁠ ⁠The Scorpio Getaway story•⁠ ⁠Mahindra pick ups in the international market•⁠ ⁠Limitations of the Getaway, revealed to Sirish by an international cricketer•⁠ ⁠The Isuzu pick up story and why it failed to make a dent•⁠ ⁠The aftermath of pandemic and emission norms•⁠ ⁠GST and registration plate challenges for the pickup segment •⁠ ⁠The flourishing commercial pickup story•⁠ ⁠Can the lifestyle segment in India be cracked at all, and who can do it

Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer sat down exclusively with evo India and confirmed it — the Volkswagen compact SUV is coming to India next year.Thomas Schäfer also addresses VW's electrification roadmap for India — a localised EV platform is a must for CAFE compliance and the group is actively working on what that looks like. CNG is back under consideration. Diesel is not ruled out — the FTA makes it viable for certain models. On the FTA, Schäfer confirms Volkswagen has already exported from India to over 40 markets, including Mexico. The last time the GTI arrived in India it sold out in minutes. On partnerships with Indian manufacturers — discussions are happening; they are serious, and nothing is closed yet. 0:00 Introduction: Volkswagen CEO Thomas Schäfer0:23 Views on VW's India 2.0 1:07 When does Volkswagen's Kylaq launch?1:56 Differentiation in the Kylaq and the VW subcompact SUV3:26 VW's Electrification roadmap for India?5:02 VW cars in India to get CNG and diesel?6:05 VW's strategy on the India-EU FTA?7:10 Will India get more VW GT and GTI cars?7:56 Addressing rumors about partnerships in India8:57 What do the next 5 years look like for the VW brand in India?

What does Dolby Atmos actually mean in a car — and why does it matter more in a car than in your living room?

In this episode of the evo India Podcast, Karan Grover, Senior Director at Dolby Labs, sits down with executive editor, Aatish Mishra to explain exactly how Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision work in cars, why a car is actually the most perfect listening environment Dolby has ever worked with, and why India is doing things in car audio that have never been done anywhere else in the world.

The conversation covers the detail that will stop most people cold: AR Rahman composed 1,100 individual chimes for the Mahindra BE6 and BE9, all mixed in Dolby Atmos — so when a warning sound tells you there is an obstruction on your left, it genuinely comes from your left. That is not a gimmick. That is object-based audio design applied to a car's entire sound ecosystem.

Karan explains how Dolby Atmos goes from a recording studio to a streaming platform to your car's speakers, why the car is the only listening environment where every speaker position and every seat position is fixed — which makes it the ideal space for Atmos tuning — and how Mahindra Auto became the first manufacturer in the world to put Dolby Atmos on a 4-channel non-branded speaker setup in the XUV 3XO. Mahindra also pushed Dolby to deliver Atmos on the Thar, previously thought impossible at that speaker configuration. Both were firsts. Both happened in India.

The episode also covers the Mercedes-AMG GT63 Electric's synthesized V8 sound and whether it is tuned in Dolby Atmos, how EVs are changing the science of sound design because there is no engine masking the audio environment, why Apple CarPlay supports Atmos playback and what Android's recent update means for wireless Atmos in cars, and where car audio goes from here — including the possibility of film premieres in cars and Dolby Atmos eventually reaching buses, tractors and auto-rickshaws. He also talks about the various cars which have Dolby Atmos like the XUV 7XO, the Maruti Suzuki Victoris, Tata Sierra and more.

Dolby currently works with 38 automobile manufacturers and over 150 car nameplates globally.

Norton is back. And the company that saved it isn’t British — it’s Indian.

In this episode, evo India Editor Sirish Chandran and Executive Editor Aatish Mishra go deep on one of motorcycling’s most unlikely comeback stories — how TVS Motor Company acquired a bankrupt Norton, poured serious money into it, rebuilt the factory, the workforce, and the engineering, and then produced the Manx R Superbike as proof that it worked.

They cover TVS’s investment and what Norton actually did with it, how the brand was upgraded from the ground up, which Indian components are on the Manx R, styling and first ride impressions, the V4 engine history and what makes it special, performance impressions from Spain, India launch plans, motorsport ambitions, how former JLR design boss Gerry McGovern is involved, and why Norton’s revival matters to India.

This is just the beginning.

evo India is India’s leading automotive enthusiast magazine and podcast — covering cars, motorcycles, motorsport, and the culture around them.