Is India Gearing Up To Become the World's Next RV and Motorhome Superpower? You Bet!

Folks, the name JCBL is most likely to mean very little to you. However, this India-born group has been active across countless automotive industries since 1989, and now, they seem to be taking on a new industry: RVs and motorhomes. That's right, people; India is planning on bringing their worth to the RV industry, but is it what we want and need?

Well, recently, JCBL has been in the news with their most recent unveiling, the Signature Motorhome (SM), part of JCBL RV, which is, in turn, part of JCBL Group. Sidenote: they even have a branch that builds armored cars for the US and other nations. As for what we're in for with the SM, that's what we're here to find out.

Now, the manufacturer doesn't make a whole lot of mention regarding what goes into bringing the SM to life, well, not in English anyway. Luckily for us, a review by Overdrive magazine tells us a bit about the SM's story, and as you'd expect, it's considered one of India's first "Luxury Motorhomes."

This means that everything the Western world is used to in an RV is possible with this one, including the beauty of customization. According to the video, units will be/are available starting with a length of at least 10 m (33 ft). The model in the video is almost 18 m (59 ft long, so there's plenty of space to add all the features RV owners want and need.

Overall, this is JCBL's flagship model, and with that, expect to see the peak this crew can achieve; feel free to comment on what you see in the videos. All that starts with an exterior that looks very familiar; it's similar to just about any other luxury motorhome we've seen on autoevolution.

Starting from the ground up, the entire thing sits upon just two axles, with a massive rear end hanging beyond the rear axle. And in between those wheels, the lower half of the SM is covered in hatches and cargo bays that hide all the systems JCBL felt you need while on the road. This includes bays for storage, access to your water tanks and electrical, and one space even hides a generator.

Moving our gaze toward the upper half of the SM, we can spot countless windows lining the body of the SM, but most importantly, a section of the shell wall is built upon a slide-out. It's here that the living room is found, but we'll get to that shortly.

As for the interior of the unit, there's only one way inside, via the drop-down stairwell integrated into the side of the SM. Press a button and watch it unravel at your feet. You'd think that we can access the living space from the cab, but this "luxury" RV doesn't include this feature. Oh, and I'm not done talking about that so-called extravagant cab, but one thing at a time.

Upon entering the unit, we first encounter a couple of hide-away seats, and once we're in the center of the living room, we can see how the interior is partitioned. To the left (starboard), the SM reveals three reclining and pivoting seats to be used during transit, all sitting in the backdrop of large windows for visibility to the outside world. Along the opposite wall, JCBL adds a large couch that is supposed to also be used as an extra sleeping space.

Heading toward the rear of the RV, we encounter a galley on the starboard side and a bathroom on the port wall, but it's the very rear of the SM that hides the bedroom. Here, a modular couch is to be the main bed, and a drop-down bunk for a child is also situated in the room.

With a general feeling of the layout, it's time for me to dig my fingers into this pie and rip it to shreds. Why? well, I look at and explore countless RVs and campers every day - it's literally my job - and what I noticed about the SM is that it's not very "luxury." This is just my personal and so-called unprofessional opinion.

For example, that couch in the living room looks like the kind I'd find at my Grandma's house, and the bathroom shows up with exposed pipes. The wood making up storage bays, cabinetry, and some tables looks like the really low-end stuff that someone lacquered by hand real quick, and that cab... I'm just not going to go there.

Sure, there's a remote for just about everything in the unit, those passenger chairs in the living room swivel, allowing guests to get a view of the world around them, and LED lighting is integrated into the walls and ceiling, but the way one of the presenters has to hammer a drawer back into place is just off-putting. So, is India about to be the world's next RV superpower? Well, no, but it's definitely a start. Be sure to check out other machines JCBL is working on spitting out.

I'm curious to read what you have to say about the way JCBL's first motorhome turned out and where you think things may be heading from here.