Hybrid economy

Two identical cars, with two very different technology offerings, and answering the burning question as to which one suits you and why!

- Dipayan Dutta

We’ve had several sibling rivalries play out on the pages of the Auto Today Road Test, but none quite like the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara mild-hybrid and the Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder full hybrid. For once it’s a question of the technology and not the badges on these two cars. A question that is plaguing customers in the market for an SUV in this segment - “when you have two cars that are essentially the same in every other aspect, will the price premium of a hybrid be a cost that you can recover in the long run?” And whether these two SUVs, which share so much componentry and platform feel identical to drive and own?

We’ll start with how both these cars look. Despite sharing the same platform both brands have taken contrasting approaches to how these SUVs look. It’s an interesting juxtaposition when you think about it, the Grand Vitara is the most premium product that has come out of Maruti Suzuki since the whole Kizashi kerfuffle, and the Urban Cruiser Hyryder is the most accessible product in Toyota’s SUV catalogue since the Brezza based Urban Cruiser. So, while Toyota already had a design blueprint with which they could align its new SUV, for Maruti Suzuki it meant creating a premium SUV for the rest of their catalogue to look up to.