Perodua Axia, a small budget Malaysian car, was seen taking rounds undisguised in Mumbai. However, the car was equipped with testing equipment hinting at some tests being carried out.
The Perodua Axia is on sale in Malaysia and is the first car to be made at the carmaker's second manufacturing unit located near its existing facility at Rawang. Power comes from a 1.0-litre three-cylinder all-aluminium petrol engine, which comes paired either to a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic transmission. This mill churns out 65.71bhp of power and 90Nm of torque.
But what is this car doing on Indian roads? On further analysis, it came to light that the Axia is a rebadged version of the Indonesia-spec Daihatsu Ayla. The image of the Indonesia-spec Daihatsu Ayla is added for reference. Recent reports have revealed that Toyota has been planning to introduce Daihatsu cars in India since a long time. Their plan is to start selling Daihatsu models under the Toyota brand name initially. Eventually, Toyota will launch Daihatsu vehicles in the entry-level budget oriented segment of the Indian car market.
So coming back to the car in question, the carmaker might be testing components of the Axia hatchback, which it shares with the Daihatsu’s small car. These tests might form the base for a concrete plan of bringing up a product in India within a span of few years. Well, it is too early to make such predictions, but if this is the plan, the small car does have a lot of competition in the small car segment in India.
