With the debut of the Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder, everyone is eagerly waiting for the Maruti Suzuki counterpart, which we know exclusively, will be called the Grand Vitara.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) is prepping to resurrect the Grand Vitara moniker, according to the exclusive information by our source at Maruti. The Hyryder is a mid-size SUV that has been unveiled a couple of days ago and locks horns with the giants of the segment including Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos. While the Grand Vitara might be supplied by Toyota as per their joint venture, it will bear numerous distinctions like exterior styling and interior layout. To distinguish it further, MSIL will leverage the Vitara Brezza nameplate that was quite popular back in the day in our market.
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Maruti To Resurrect Grand Vitara
It must be noted that Maruti already sells its Vitara in the international market. We have attached a representational image of the European version of the SUV here. To ensure that there is no confusion with the Vitara Brezza (compact SUV that is now known as just Brezza in our market), the Hyryder-based Indian version will be called the Grand Vitara. Unlike the Baleno-Glanza and Brezza-Urban Cruiser, the Hyryder and Grand Vitara will have distinct identities with varied exterior styling and cabin outlook. A simple way to understand it is how Virtus and Slavia differ in terms of design but share the same platform and powertrains.
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Specs
While the Maruti’s version of the mid-size SUV is about to follow soon, we could infer that the powertrain options will be identical to the Hyryder. This means that there will be 2 hybrid petrol engines. The mild-hybrid will be a Maruti-sourced 4-cylinder 1.5-litre K-Series engine that will output 102 hp and 137 Nm of peak torque and come with an AWD drivetrain, while the strong hybrid will have a 3-cylinder 1.5-litre engine from Toyota with an electric motor and a Li-Ion battery pack that will develop a combined power of 116 hp.
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The mild-hybrid version will come mated to either a 5-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission, whereas the strong hybrid will have an e-Drive automatic transmission only. There are no official figures as far as the mileage is concerned, but the strong hybrid is capable of pure electric drive for short distances which indicates that the fuel efficiency will be pretty high. That will be the main reason why people would opt for the strong hybrid as it will save a lot of fuel, in the long run, to offset the initial high price although the prices will be announced only at the launch.
