Around the world, small sport-utility vehicles are replacing sedans in consumers’ hearts, but no where is the trend as popular or extreme as India, where car makers are introducing mini-SUVs. Built on frames typically used for subcompacts and powered by small engines, the mini-SUVs provide a taller, bulkier and more macho profile to appeal to the growing number of middle-class drivers battling traffic on the country’s crowded roads. Last week, Indian auto maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. EQM&M 1.10 % showed off one of the latest examples of this new breed, the Mahindra KUV100, with a glowering front end and a shape the company’s marketers say is “sculpted to dominate.” (The K stands for kool, the company says.) Drivers “are getting in a small package the SUV feel,” said Anand Mahindra, Mahindra’s chairman. He described the new vehicles as “sachet-sized,” a reference to consumer-goods makers’ practice of selling […]