The Urban Cruiser will feature a fresh front fascia with Toyota design identity
There have been a few rendering attempts of Toyota Urban Cruiser, the rebadged Maruti Vitara Brezza. Our rendering artist Pratyush Rout as come up with his own version just a few days ahead of the commencement of bookings. We reported that Toyota Kirloskar Motor is set to drop a video teaser in the coming days in a build up to the opening of bookings which is scheduled on 22nd August. Launch and deliveries are planned in the month of September.
The Toyota Urban Cruiser is the second Maruti Suzuki product to be rebadged as Toyota as a part of the automakers’ partnership agreement. While the Toyota Glanza, rebadged Maruti Baleno, has minimal changes, the Urban Cruiser is expected to distinguish itself better than its donor model.
While the sheet metal surfaces are expected to be carried forward without any changes in a bid to keep the costs in check, plastic parts would undergo significant changes. In short, the front fascia will feature a new grille, secondary airdam, bumper and subtly restyled headlamps to fit the Toyota brand identity. This speculative rendering derives its design inspiration from the Toyota Raize compact SUV which caters to Southeast Asian markets.
We expect the Toyota Urban Cruiser to feature some noticeable changes at the rear as well. New color options, exclusive interior color themes would further differentiate the Toyota sub-4m SUV from its Maruti sibling.
Synergy in rebadging
The Toyota Urban Cruiser is most like to be manufactured at Maruti Suzuki’s Gurgaon plant alongside the Vitara Brezza. Production could be later shifted to one of Toyota’s plants near Bangalore but there seems to be no immediate plans on this front. We will know more at the time of launch.
The Urban Cruiser will be mechanically near identical to Maruti Vitara Brezza. The compact SUV will be propelled by the 1.5-liter petrol engine which offers 104 hp and Nm of torque. On board the Brezza, the motor receives mild hybrid system only with the automatic transmission but Toyota is likely to offer the system on manual variants as well.
The highly competitive compact SUV segment is set to witness a flood of new models in the near future. The Toyota Urban Cruiser will be accompanied by Kia Sonet in the same month while Nissan Magnite and its Renault sibling, the Kiger, aren’t far behind either.
