Maruti Suzuki eVitara review – Maruti (finally) goes electric | Drive | Autocar India
We’re in the UK today to drive a car that’s made in India. Yes. With us today is the Maruti Suzuki or as it’s called here, the Suzuki Evitara. Now, in case you’re wondering why we driving this car in the UK, why not in India? Well, the car is not yet launched in India. It has launched in the UK and Maroti said well why not drive it in the UK before it heads to India. The car as you can see here is the same EVA that we saw in India at the auto expo. But let me give you a quick walk around just to refresh your memories. So here at the front as you can see very angular the shapes. In fact a lot of sharp lines all over the car. Mahi calls it the metal beast. And uh as you can see they’ve accentuated all of these uh sort of uh I wouldn’t say curves now but there are areas that have been made to look very angular and robust giving it that sort of muscular stance. Now it does look like a Suzuki in terms of certain traits but it doesn’t have an internal combustion version and looks nothing like anything in the range. So that could be a good thing for Maruti. Now let’s move over to the side. At the side well things here subdue a little bit compared to the front. As you can see, uh kind of you’ve got the sharp shoulder line here. Uh in terms of a design element here, you have the hidden, uh door handle up here. So, there’s only one door handle that is uh in plain sight. Let’s move over to the rear. At the rear, things get now a lot more angular just like we saw in the front. So, these lights, this one I really, really like because it protrudes really nice nicely out here. In fact, uh this fender here flows nicely into uh here and out into the lights. Looks really nice, especially when you’re standing right here in the flesh and looking at it. Now, while the outside here connects, inside it’s not connected. So, you don’t have that continuous light bar. And to tell you the truth, I actually like it. The continuous light bar is actually now too common. Uh what do you think though? I mean, let us know in the comments in terms of the styling. What do you like about the car? What do you not like about the car? But, uh, that’s what it’s like on the outside. Since we’re at the rear though, let’s take a look inside at the boot. Now, in terms of space, uh, yeah, this isn’t a powered tailgate. So, you lift it up. This is 350 odd L. In fact, I don’t have the exact figure with me, but we’ll have that up on the screen for you. And as you can see here, it’s got a split rear seat. So, it’s not a 60/40 split. You’ve got actually a 4020 split. And these things here, these are actually cup holders for when you fold down that seat. Uh I’ll show that to you when we get there onto the allimportant passenger space. Then now in terms of rear space, it is a very mixed bag. And I say that because leg room, well, as you can see, there’s ample leg room. Uh this seat was set to my uh sort of position, my driving position as well. I’m 5’8 for reference. So I’ve got ample leg room, but headroom that is quite tight. In fact, what they’ve done is they’ve scooped out a portion here, but it’s still with the scoop out section, there’s like three maybe four finger gap and that’s it. Anyone taller will find their head actually touching and especially if you just lean forward slightly. So, uh that’s that’s quite something uh of of a downer to see. You also sit in a kind of knees up position. So, that’s because of the battery down below. Now, Baldi says this is a born electric and I would have expected that this should have been better taken care of in that sense. One unique thing at the rear though in terms of leg room. Yes, I have the seats fully back. You heard me right. You can slide these actually. So you can see here I can move it right to the front to make more space for uh luggage or you know take it midway or all the way back. And you can do that for both of these as well. Uh this one the center seat is also an armrest as I was saying earlier. So you can use this as an armrest. And these are the cup holders too. Now, in case you’re wondering, uh, this is sloping and when you put cups here, will the drink spill if it’s to the top? Not really, because the bottom is actually angled to make sure that both the cups are level. So, uh, nice to see that Mari has taken care of that little detail. And I also want you to take a look at the seat upholstery here because the car we have has the tan and gray interiors. You do have an all black as well, but what we will be getting in India is this particular version, the tan one apparently. So, it looks really nice. I really prefer this one because it’s a dark tan and this dark gray and it’s a mix of leatherrett as well as cloth. Looks really nice and premium and I’m happy that this is the version we’re getting in India. So here at the front the first thing I want to show you is the steering wheel because uh this is a very interesting looking square circular squal kind of uh unit. Looks quite interesting and nicely made because it’s leather wrapped all around here. We should be getting the same kind of treatment and upholstery in India as well. Ahead of me is a full it’s a single pane u sort of glass but very oddly they’ve got two separate screens and not set at the same height. So those of you with uh OCD will find this very disorienting. In fact the passenger here when you’re sitting here if you look here you you’ll see this mismatch and there’s a big fat band here. Now, I thought this band was for the driver monitoring system, but actually that’s down here. So, it’s looking really odd. In fact, I can see a lot of the band here as well. A lot of this bezel. So, this fat bezel here and then a thinner bezel. This looks a little bit uh too offc center. So, that’s that’s quite odd. What’s also off center is this. Again, the passenger here will notice it more because from here, yeah, it looks kind of fine because the air vent will blow to the rear or to you if you want, but it is offset to this side. Uh, but that’s all part of I guess the funky design. I don’t know. Uh, again, let me know what you think about this uh kind of setup. The rest of the bits inside here, you’ve got storage down below here as is very common nowadays with EVs. Below this sort of floating center console, uh, you’ve got cup holders here. a wireless phone charger. Uh here, what I’m really happy to see is this bank of buttons here. Always nice to have buttons and a dial for volume and for of course the air conditioning. And there toggle switches here for the temperature. So very nice and easy to use while on the move. And this is how it should always be. There’s also a sunroof, steering mounted audio controls, a 360deree camera, power driver seat, Infiniti branded audio, and on the safety front, seven airbags, and a full ADAS suite. So, it’s well loaded. Something that Mari has been paying attention to of late. Now, up here at the front, in case you were expecting a frunk, well, you’re not going to have that here because the front motor and the controller, it’s all housed here. Yes. In fact, in the two wheel drive version, the main motor is in the front, which is quite odd for what Mari says is a Bon electric because typically when you do a Bon electric, you do a rear motor because that’s the better position to have a main motor in. For one, because all of the power goes to the rear wheels uh and not at the front where you’re having to uh contend with also steering input. So manufacturers tend to want to put it towards the rear uh in in a Bond EV. It’s also safer in terms of you get to use this area uh better in terms of crash safe and all the high voltage uh sort of cabling also stays behind but you do have uh versions which have all-wheel drive and then you have a front motor too. This one has all-wheel drive but the secondary motor is at the rear. Onto the driving then. The Evitara is powered by LFB blade cells and there’s a 61 kWh battery powering a 184 horsepower dual motor setup. But that’s not likely coming to India. Instead, we’ll get the single motor options and those comprise of a 49 kWh battery with a 144 horsepower motor and a more powerful 174 horsepower motor output with the 61 kWh battery, which is what we’re driving here today. So, what does that feel like? Uh, well, it’s quite nice. I mean, in terms of horsepower figures, yes, 174 is a lot, but it doesn’t really feel that way because the tuning is more for regular kind of, I would say, strong, but not peppy and spiky power delivery. And that’s even in sport mode. So, for those looking for that peppy, sharp response from your EV, well, you’re not going to find that here. So, even if I were to uh, you know, put my foot down, right now I’m in eco mode, but I’m going to move to sport here. Put my foot down like this. Yeah, you will shoot off quickly enough, but it doesn’t really pin you back. And that’s a nice thing. As you know, I very often say this when driving uh EVs. Every EV doesn’t need to just dump all its power in one foot just because it can. There’s adjustable regen levels as well to aid charge, but oddly you have to set the desired level on the touchcreen and then engage it via center console button. In terms of the claimed range, uh the WLTP is somewhere around the 420. I’m not sure, but I’ll have that up on the screen for you. Mari says though, uh it’s 500 plus. So, well, we’ll wait to see for the official ARI figures when the car does launch. So for a family SUV, this tuning is just fine. And that non-spiky nature is also in a bit to preserve range. In terms of suspension, you’ve got McFersonen struts up front, a twist beam on the rear. Fairly standard in that sense. The setup though is on the firm side. In fact, it’s typically European. So it is firm. Remember, this is a global car and in fact is very important for Suzuki to get it right in markets like the UK. uh India in fact uh maybe one of the smaller markets for uh the Evitara. So they have set it up for Europe. You can tell that from uh the firmer ride. Now what that means is at higher speeds you do have good composure but over bumps and ruts uh there isn’t too much plants uh in the uh springs damper. It feels over damped actually and you do heave up and down. So it will be interesting to see. Yeah, like right now see we’re going over these rumblers. You can feel that uh coming through. So it will be interesting to see how the car fares over potholes in India. So there is some level of road noise now. Yes, the road surface is quite coarse here but the speed is not too high 50 mph. So somewhere around 80 km/h and you can hear that constant tire drone over it. So that’s the Evitara. As you’ve seen, it’s not your typical Maroti that checks all boxes. Space isn’t a strong point, and efficiency isn’t class leading. But not being a typical Maruti also means the interiors don’t feel built to a cost, and it should arrive well equipped, too. Plus, the Evitara’s easy to drive character is perfect for a relaxed everyday car. And it’s a handsome looker, too. One that doesn’t share its top hat with any other model. And distinction is what EV buyers seem to be after. So that should really help the Evitara’s case which isn’t going to be a walk in the park and pricing will be key. At the low end, the smaller 41 kWh battery should start at around 17 lakh rupees undercutting the 42 kWh electric creta. But at the higher end, the 61 kWh battery on the Evitara might just sit above the Creta which has a 51 kWh battery. And that model comes in at the 24 lakh mark. So it’s game on then for these longtime rivals who will now meet on the electric field too.
Maruti’s first EV is not your typical Maruti, as Sergius Barretto found out driving it in the UK.
Editor: Mohit Sharma
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