Highlights for Autolife Volume 7 Issue 4

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AUTOLIFE TEST DRIVE

HEIR TO THE THRONE

THE ALL NEWHYUNDAI CRETA

WORDS & PHOTOS: AL TEAMWORDS & PHOTOS: AL TEAM

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Hyundai Creta, a name everyone has heard so much about. The vehicle that single handedly changed the compact SUV segment. Known by most as the best vehicle in the segment, which can be justified by the overwhelming sales figure of the Creta. So how does one improve on a car many deemed to be perfect? Well the people of Hyundai know exactly what to do to make the Creta an even better vehicle. The Creta was a very well acclaimed vehicle when it was first introduced into the market and is still doing very well. Now with the competition slowly catching up Hyundai has brought the facelifted Creta into the Nepal market to keep a strong hold on the top step of its category. So how much has changed with this facelift and is it enough to keep the competition at bay? We look into this as we test drive the facelifted 2018 Hyundai Creta 1.6 Petrol SX (O).

EXTERIOR The exterior is where most of the changes have taken place in the facelift, the front end more specifically. The design language of Hyundai has carried on to the Creta as well as it has with the rest of the Hyundai line up of vehicles. The LED DRLs (Daytime Running Lights) move down from the headlight to the fog lamp and in between the fog lamp is where the signature cascading grille has been placed. The sides have been left majorly unchanged except for the new diamond cut 17inch alloy wheel design. The five spoked dual tone fan shaped wheels give the sides a refreshed look. The taillights have been slightly revised as well getting a more modern look to it. With all the upgrades it feels more bold and elegant than its predecessor which is quite an accomplishment because the old model was a very good looking vehicle too. The fact that the top variant the SX (O) (the model that we tested) had an electronically operated sunroof made the vehicle more premium feeling. The bold new front and rear skid plates make the Creta look beefier.

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THE PREVIOUS GENERATION CRETA WAS ALREADY A WELL- ROUNDED PACKAGE AND THE FACELIFT FILLS IN ALL THE GAPS THAT WERE LEFT TO MAKE IT AN EVEN BETTER OFFERING

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AUTOLIFE INTERVIEW

KALASH TULADHAR

ASHISH SINHA

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ZEN AND MOTORCYCLES THE STORY OF IRON MONK

WORDS: PRASHANT MANANDHAR | PHOTOS: GAURAV XHOMPATE SUNUWAR

“Not everyone understands what a completely rational process this is, this maintenance of a motorcycle. They think it’s some kind of “knack” or some kind of “affinity for machines” in operation. They are right, but the knack is almost purely a process of reason, and most of the troubles are caused by what old time radio men called a “short between the earphones,” failures to use the head properly. A motorcycle functions entirely in accordance with the laws of reason, and a study of the art of motorcycle maintenance is really a miniature study of the art of rationality itself.”

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- Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

part from riding the magnificent machines known as motorcycles, the art of working on one and maintaining it has its one sense of fascination. For some, it might just look like normal mechanical aspects that keep the motor running and for others it’s a passion to work with motorcycles to maintain them perfectly. Mr. Ashish Sinha and Mr. Kalash Tuladhar are two individuals who have found this passion and are among a few who are driven with a vision to change how motorcycle maintenance is looked upon. Just recently, they have established a work station of their own, called Iron Monk Works and are looking to set benchmarks in terms how they service a motorcycle. We had the chance to chat with them about their brainchild, Iron Monk, and their philosophy behind the brand. Let’s find out what they have say and we hope that maybe you will start looking at motorcycle servicing from a different perspective.

COULD YOU GIVE OUR READERS A BRIEF INSIGHT ABOUT IRON MONK?

Ashish: Iron Monk is a motorcycle workshop where we claim to be specialists in superbikes and exotic vehicles along with vintage vehicles but we are open to everyone from a Honda Dio, all the way up to CBR 1000. Iron Monk started with Kalash being the brains behind it and me the small muscle behind it. We have been friends for a long time and we’ve been talking about this for 10-15 years now; not the name itself but the concept behind it. All the work that we have done so far has led us to establishing the brand.

IRON MONK WORKS SOUNDS PRETTY INTERESTING. HOW DID YOU GUYS COME UP WITH THE NAME AND WHAT’S THE MAIN SIGNIFICANCE BEHIND THE NAME AND THE LOGO?

Ashish: Kalash and me both studied in the US and worked there. I used to work for a company named Iron Pony and basically the significance behind the name Iron Pony was steel horse which was another name for motorcycles. I worked with them for quite some time and they gave me pretty good foot in the door in the industry. And later, unknowingly, when we decided to move here open the shop and we were deciding what we wanted to do and what resembles the passion, so we took the Iron from the steel horse and then Monk came from the Zen of our region and culture. Basically, it was one of those names that was just thrown out there but it just resonated to us and we stuck with Iron Monk.

The logo was designed by one of our good friends at 108 Wears and it was one of the first designs that he came up with. There’s a lot of minute details on it; we got our traditional prayer wheel, then there’s the Namaste hands up top, there’s a chain going down, there’s a spark plug and the prayer wheel is actually a motorcycle tire. So, it’s basically like the world of motorcycles and the religious Zen aspect is mashed up together.

WHAT IS THE MAIN MOTIVE BEHIND CREATING THE BRAND? WHAT IS THE MAIN GOAL OR VISION THAT YOU ARE PLANNING TO ACHIEVE WITH IRON MONK WORKS?

Kalash: After working in the US and gaining experience about how your vehicles are taken care of and how there’s a system for everything, you get a sense of realization that you are actually getting what you are paying for. So there if you go to a quality workshop, you get quality service and if you go to a shady place then you get shady service. Whereas in Nepal, if you go to any kind of place and if you’re not there while the bike is getting serviced then some one will actually take advantage of that. That’s one part where we wanted to establish ourselves as a brand that actually provides quality service and make sure that you are getting what you pay for.

Another aspect is that as the motorcycles are progressing and becoming more technically sophisticated, there aren’t as many private workshops that can work

on your vehicles apart from the dealers. Also, the dealers are always busy and they have to take care of a lot of bikes. And because of that time constraint, they won’t be able to take care of your bike as much as it should have been taken care of. So, our main objective is that, when a bike comes in to our workshop, we will do a complete inspection of the bike, tell the customer what needs to be done and if it’s a critical problem we try to fix it right away. Our main motive is to provide the best possible service to the customers.

Ashish: So, in short, the basic intent was to raise the bar of customer service and quality of service. But unfortunately, what we saw from our experience was that a lot of people open workshops and work on machines that people’s lives rely on, and don’t give utmost priority to their service. What we felt was that we need to create something in the private sector to showcase a cleaner and better image of what a workshop can be.

UP UNTIL NOW HOW HAVE THE CUSTOMERS BEEN RESPONDING TO THE BRAND AND THE SERVICE THAT YOU ARE PROVIDING?

Ashish: Its been much better and different then what we expected it to be.

Kalash: It has just been a month that we have been operating and our customer base is growing and people are showing interest. Even if its just for a vehicle inspection, they come in or even if it’s a new purchase or motorcycles with warranty, people are coming to us for our suggestions.

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AUTOLIFE TEST DRIVE

ASURGE OFADRENALINE

TOYOTA RUSH

WORDS & PHOTOS: AL TEAM

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Toyota has been making SUVs for the longest of times and whatever rolls out of the Toyota factories gets high expectations from the consumers as they are renowned for their bulletproof reliability. Toyota has also been making 7 seater vehicles for quite some time now, so with the introduction of the Rush Toyota have mixed their experience into making a compact Seven Seater SUV. We rarely see a 7 seater in the compact SUV segment and the only other compact SUV in direct contention for the top spot in this category is the Honda BR-V; usually the compact SUVs are 5 seaters at most. So with its latest entrant in the market we take the Rush and put it through different obstacles to see how it handles it.

EXTERIOR The Rush has a pretty striking look going on, with sharp angles and lines it tries to state its presence to those around it. Being a 7 seater SUV it is a little longer than the usual compact SUVs and does have a hint of a Multi-Purpose Vehicle (MPV) look to it, along with a slight resemblance to its sibling the Toyota Innova Crysta. The front of the car has an aggressive touch to it with the angular horizontal slatted grille running in conjunction with the LED headlights. The slatted grille flows well with the headlight and give the front a clean look. The LED headlight is quite small are neatly tucked into the body, with a stripe of LED DRL running from the top of one side to the bottom of the other side. The fog lamp is housed in a triangular plastic housing continuing the angular design. The wheel arches are covered by plastic cladding to give it the tough off roader look. While talking about the sides of the Rush there is a crease that runs throughout the side of the vehicle and meets the taillight. The alloy wheels look well in place once again continuing the angular design of the Rush. The 290mm of ground clearance can be seen pretty evidently as the vehicle looks high off the ground. The angular design comes to an end once we reach the rear of the Rush as there is a lack of those elements; moreover the rear has a clean and simple look.

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AUTOLIFE INTERVIEW

IN CONVERSATION WITH PRANAYNA K.C. CEO AT ECO INFINITY PVT. LTD.

WORDS: PRASHANT MANANDHAR | PHOTOS: GAURAV XHOMPATE SUNUWAR

It certainly seems like the trend of EVs are catching up in the Nepalese market. However, there’s a lot of misconceptions surrounding it and the potential growth the EVs can attain is still somewhat stagnant. As of right now, we can only hope that with various companies coming up with electric vehicles, the future of EVs will be something to look forward to. One of the brands in the EV segment that has made a name for itself in only a small span of time is NIU. Here, we have a conversation with Pranayna K.C., CEO at Eco Infinity Pvt. Ltd. where we discuss on how electric scooters are shaping the future of EVs and the direction that NIU is heading towards.

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DO YOU BELIEVE ELECTRIC SCOOTERS CAN REPLACE THE COMBUSTION TWO WHEELERS IN NEPAL? Absolutely! Number one is because the government have been taking initiatives for a country that doesn’t have a lot of carbon emissions norms and we have been moving forward. Also, considering that almost 90% of our automobile imports come from India, the fact that India has promised in the global platform that they are going to go all green from 2030 so we will have no other option than to choose electric vehicles as an alternative. Not just that, but the Nepalese crowd is starting to get aware and people starting to adapt to smart technologies more. The smart technology captures the market and EVs are smart. So, there is a definitive growth in the EV sectors and maybe one day it will eventually replace combustion engines.

THERE ARE OTHER ELECTRIC TWO-WHEELER DISTRIBUTORS IN NEPAL SO HOW WOULD YOU SAY NIU STANDS OUT? First of all, the product itself is amazing and NIU is one of the highest selling electric scooters globally. Given the global success it has had and the fact that NIU has crossed 1 Billion kilometers in two years speaks for itself. Even in the context of Nepal, right now, all of our marketing is word of mouth; people who have bought it have liked it so much that they have established a trust with the brand. Another aspect that sets NIU apart is our team, and by that, I mean if you see the work culture here you will see a lot of enthusiastic people working towards customer satisfaction.

WHAT IS NIU’S GREATEST CHALLENGE AT THIS POINT OF TIME? One of the biggest challenges has to be the way that government policies are formulated. For instance, electric scooters have to go through road eligibility test but there is no test for petrol scooters to check their power; there are different capacity scooters to determine that but sometimes even 125cc scooter doesn’t have enough torque to tackle some of the road conditions in Nepal. Suppose we bring in a 2400-watt scooter and we go through a test and later if we bring a 3000-watt scooter, we will have to go through the same test. Of course, it’s going to be powerful but it is a hassle to keep going through the same test over an over again. Also, there isn’t clarity in the customs and people get angry that electric scooters are expensive even though it’s cheaper to import but they don’t understand cost that goes into the technology. But other than that, in terms of spare parts, we have to pay the same

amount of tax as petrol scooters.

As a company, it is really difficult to get qualified technicians. Even in engineering colleges, the students don’t get a hands-on training on Lithium ion batteries and we have to start from scratch by training every employ that we hire. Also, to top it off, the lack of consumer knowledge towards EV and it has been our biggest challenge to break the stereotype that people have had about electric scooters not having quality and enough power for our road conditions.

DOES NIU HAVE ANY PLANS ON BRINGING RECHARGING STATIONS TO NEPAL AND HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT’LL TAKE BEFORE NIU BUILDS A NATIONWIDE RECHARGING NETWORK? We have a charging station at Labim Mall within the next two months and we have also planned to establish at least 3 charging stations. A nationwide charging network is possible, but you don’t actually need one for the NIU as the batteries are removable and you can charge it anywhere. So basically, when we initially started out, we installed charging stations at Naxal, Maitighar, Durbar Marg and Labim Mall but people rarely used it. Now, what we are going to do is install a charging station in the parking lot of Labim and all you’ll have to do is just plug in and it’s completely free. Its all about making it convenient for the owners. And as for going nationwide, we are opening up at Pokhara and other cities as well but we are taking things slow to make sure that we give our best.

UP UNTIL NOW, HOW HAS THE CUSTOMER RESPONSE BEEN TOWARDS NIU? It has actually been quite impressive. Its like the more we sell, I start gaining more faith in the brand. Customers who have actually bought it, have been really satisfied with it. Kirana is one of our best customer advocates, they are a grocery delivery company and they have already bought 4 scooters from us. Customers have been really satisfied with the features our products have and that’s why they have been giving us amazing testimonials.

WILL WE SEE ELECTRIC MOTORCYCLES COMING FROM NIU? About a year ago, NIU made an electric motorcycle called Project X and the concept was showcased at EICMA. But the issue with that is it’s ridiculously expensive to maintain a quality that NIU is offering with more space to fit two people and a heavier chassis. Motorcycles are obviously heavier than scooters and will require a bigger battery which basically means that there

will be a lot of cost tied to it. Eventually, once that is resolved, maybe the Project X will actually be able to cater to the market.

WOULD YOU SAY NIU SHARES THE SAME/SIMILAR VISION AND MISSION AS TESLA? If I have to sum it up to words then the vision and mission statement of NIU is smart urban mobility. Our company, Eco Infinity, has more aspects of sustainability and patriotism in our vision. We aim to contribute to the economy of the Nepal. With NIU, the agenda is how can we impower individuals and make sustainability a part of everyone’s life. This is something that Tesla wants to do as well, so I believe that we do share similar visions.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD FOR NIU AND WHAT MORE CAN WE EXPECT FROM THE BRAND? We will definitely be bringing new products but what we are focusing on is to help train young people because the more well informed the people are, the more they will be aware of the product. We want to give opportunities to engineers to get hands on experience so they can be innovative and come up with new ideas. So, we are also starting an academy called NIU Academy where we will be offering online training and whoever joins us can expect to gain a huge array of knowledge and hands on training. We have even been trying to get associated with a few colleges as well with the same agenda.

BEING A FEMALE LEADING THIS COMPANY, WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR BIGGEST CHALLENGES AND WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ASPIRING FEMALES? The challenges that I have faced almost my whole life is to be taken seriously and whenever I enter a room I have to prove myself first before I even start talking about the industry or what I do. Some struggles are on a personal level as well but these challenges are good too and I love taking on challenges. As for advices, I am also a part of a career fellowship and mentor young girls and I constantly tell them to look for inspiration around themselves. Most to times, girls are told to do this and that, not to talk too much or giggle too often from a very young age. The society needs to let girls out more so they can gain more exposure and only then can expect more woman in business sectors. What I want to tell girls is that you need to work on you head and don’t focus much on how you look or what society expects from you, work on gathering more knowledge, listen to talks that inspire you and read biographies of people that you admire. The inspiration is out there, you just have to look for it.

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AUTOLIFE TEST DRIVE

BETTER LOOKS, PERFORMANCE & COMFORT

mahindra xuv 500

PLUSH

78 AUTOLIFE SEPTEMBER 2018

WORDS & PHOTOS: AL TEAMfacebook.com/AutolifeNepal

The XUV 500 has been Mahindra’s flagship offering in the Nepalese market since its first introduction in 2011 and has been doing well so far. This was Mahindra’s initial step into the luxury SUV market and the XUV 500 was a very well acclaimed vehicle by the customers with picking up popularity and numerous awards from the get-go in its life. However, as we know, there is no time to be content with what you have as all the manufacturers are working very hard to gain the edge over one another and try to sway customers to their side. So, this time around, Mahindra XUV has gone through some changes to make it even more appealing than before. This refresh is more pronounced than the minor facelift it got a few years prior. There is a great deal of things in the refreshed third generation of the XUV 500 this year, so, we take a look into what the progressions are for the 2018 model, the XUV 500 Plush.

EXTERIOR The front end of the vehicle has experienced a modest yet a recognizable refresh. The grille still has the signature 6 slates however, they are made more distinctive with chrome studs and is bigger than what it used to be. The other change is in the front lamp, the LED DRLs return to being a single straight stripe like the original XUV but this time around, instead of being at the base of the front lamp, it’s positioned at the top. Moving to the sides, there isn’t a lot of a change here apart from the new 18-inch diamond cut alloy wheels. The back is where the most changes have occurred; gone are those long taillights which are replaced by triangular units. These do seem somewhat strange since we are so used to seeing those long taillights but it gradually blends with the look and starts to grow on you. The rooftop spoiler is more pronounced than before to give it a significantly sportier look. The XUV 500 Plush comes with a sunroof which is a nice option. The vehicle is as beefy as it used to be and has quite a strong road presence. The Outside Rear View Mirror has puddle lamps that project the XUV 500 logo on the floor to illuminate the floor to make sure that you don’t step into a puddle or anything else while getting in or out of the vehicle.

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