Maruti has literally been the backbone of the Indian passenger car market since the early 80s. It has always brought in innovative products at great prices and its last launch, the Victoris is a case in point. Surprisingly, whilst other car manufacturers rushed to jump onto the bandwagon, maruti held back. They have now unveiled their latest, the eVitara, which aims to capitalise on the success of the Vitara, but as an EV.
Make no mistake, the eVitara looks nothing like a normal Vitara. The front and the rear have three-point DRLs on either side and the front does not have a grille as you don’t need one in a BEV. The whole design looks quite muscular.
On the side, you have the rear door handles high up, giving the whole vehicle a coupe-like silhouette. Thankfully for the front doors, you still have proper pull-type handles and not that electric sliding out bar that has become more common nowadays. At the rear, the full aerodynamic treatment continues, with a high-mounted spoiler. The whole vehicle has a nice, muscular looking appearance and you get 18-inch wheels, compared to the export model’s 19-inchers.
On the inside, you have a combination of brown and black for the dashboard, and the same combination is carried over to the leatherette seats. The front seats have ventilation, which though complicated to find, is quite effective. There are two screens her – the infotainment screen is 10.25-inches in size, whereas the driver display, though appearing a tad smaller is supposed to be the same side. The positioning of the driver display is a little lower, giving the impression of a smaller screen. There is a Infinity sound system including a subwoofer, and we loved the rotary volume control button. Thankfully, you get proper switches for the climate control. The rotary ring gear selector is unique and has a nice feel to it. You also get goodies like a wireless charger and a floating console, though the small sunroof is made of a fixed glass panel and may not appeal to all. At the rear you get generous legroom thanks to the 2,700mm wheelbase, but headroom is limited for taller folks. The middle person seat at the rear can be folded down to use as an armrest, though the release is quite fiddly.
Two versions of the car exist – a 61 kWh battery with a 173 bhp motor and a smaller 49 kWh battery with a 144 bhp motor. We drove the top model and it had excellent acceleration like most electric cars and a linear performance though the MRF eco-tyres were extremely noise and effectively drowned out the silence of an EV. You had to raise your voice to talk to other people. There is no frunk under the hood, though you do get a full-sized spare. Safety wise, the eVitara is BharatNCAP 5 star rated. It also comes with a full suite of ADAS Level 2 functions, so technologically is up there with the finest.
For more updates, join/follow our WhatsApp, Telegram and YouTube channels.