More than two months after unveiling the all new Grand Vitara, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) has rolled out the mid-size Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) at a starting price of Rs. 10.45 lakh and going up to Rs. 19.65 lakh (see prices below). The all-new Grand Vitara, which is essentially a rebadged Urban Cruiser Hyryder, is positioned above the Brezza sub-compact SUV and replaces the S-Cross across its Nexa showrooms in the country.
With the launch of this 5-seater premium SUV, Maruti Suzuki will be taking on Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, Tata Harrier, Volkswagen Taigun, and Skoda Kushaq, etc. Bookings for this model, which is going on for a token amount of Rs 11,000, have already crossed 55,000 units, with waiting period going up to five and a half months.
Announcing the prices of the Grand Vitara, Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, said, “Designed to rule every road, the Grand Vitara has received an overwhelming response from customers with over 57,000 bookings and it has been widely appreciated by critics as well. The Grand Vitara paves the way toward a cleaner, greener, sustainable and carbon-neutral world. To ensure that we can do this, the Grand Vitara has been launched at a very competitive starting price of Rs. 10.45 lakh.”
Similar to the Toyota’s new SUV, the Grand Vitara will also be available in two engine options - Smart Hybrid and Intelligent Electric Hybrid-and will be powered by e-drive transmission with 2WD, being a self-charging strong hybrid electric vehicle. Both the hybrid versions will be having a 1.5-litre engine with the Mid-hybrid having K series one (developed by Maruti Suzuki). The mild hybrid also offers brake energy regeneration and an idle-stop system.
While the mild-hybrid unit gets MT (21.11km mileage), and AT (20.58 mileage) options, the strong hybrid gets eCVT gearbox (27.97 mileage). The 4WD version-positioned as All Grip Drive (19.38 mileage) will also get four driving modes - Auto, Sand, Snow, and Lock. Based on the Global C-platform, it is equipped with safety features such as six airbags, a tyre pressure monitoring system, electronic stability control and disc brakes, etc.
With this launch, Maruti Suzuki is aiming to augment its market share in the Sports utility vehicle (SUV) segment from just 13.5%. Although, it has close to a 20% share in the entry-level SUV space, its presence in the mid-size SUV space is pretty minuscule at around 4%.
Incidentally, this is the first midsize SUV that Toyota has developed jointly with Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), specifically for the Indian market. While the vehicle's platform, architecture and development was carried out by Suzuki in partnership with Maruti and its vendors, Toyota has worked on the electric hybrid powertrain. To be built solely by Toyota Kirloskar Motors (TKM) at its Bidadi facility in Karnataka from next month, the product will be more than 90 percent localized. TKM has spent nearly Rs 5,000 crore for the development of this model.
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