Chevrolet City Express is another badge-engineered Evalia

The Nissan Evalia may not be a popular car in India but world over, it is a successful vehicle for its practicality and affordability. It not only sells as the NV200 which is essentially the Van’s global title, it also sells as the Evalia and Ashok Leyland Stile in India and the Mitsubishi Delica in Japan. Chevrolet was looking for a model under the Express van in the United States and the Evalia became a quick fix.

The Chevrolet City Express slots in under the Express van in Chevrolet’s commercial vehicle fleet in the USA. It isn’t powered by Renault’s 1.5-litre K9K diesel motor that does duty in the Evalia. Instead, the City Express gets a 2.0-litre petrol engine pumping out 132PS of peak power and 139Nm of torque. The engine is mated to a CVT gearbox. The City Express for the US market gets traction control system, ABS and disc brakes all round. Being a cargo body style, the side doors get full sheet metal and the rear opening is a side hinged double door for easy loading.

The City Express will take on the Ford Transit Connect in the USA. Both GM and Ford in the American market have a range of light duty commercial vehicles. In India as of now, there isn’t much scope to enter this market as there are plenty of players already and the numbers aren’t too high.