Toyota Urban Cruiser Sub-4m SUV To Launch By November 2020

Will feature small cosmetic differences instead of just badge-swapping

• Toyota to launch its own sub-4m SUV based on the facelifted Vitara Brezza via partnership with Maruti.

• It will be called the Urban Cruiser and its launch has been delayed by the coronavirus.

• The Urban Cruiser will likely get a tweaked front fascia and alternate interior theme to distinguish it from the Brezza.

• It will be powered by the same 1.5-litre petrol engine as the 2020 Brezza.

• Toyota’s sub-4m SUV should be priced competitively with the Brezza and might even undercut it in the mid-spec variants.

Graphic rendering for representational purposes only

The sub-compact SUV segment has been getting steadily populated over time but it is still missing an entry from Toyota. It will be called the Urban Cruiser and it will arrive around the festival season.

The Urban Cruiser will be a slightly modified version of the facelifted Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, as part of Toyota’s partnership with Suzuki. In the case of the previous-shared products, the Maruti Baleno and Toyota Glanza, there wasn’t any difference between them apart from the badges. For the Urban Cruiser, Toyota plans to tweak the front fascia to make it more distinguishable rather than just changing the badges on the Brezza. Toyota is also believed to update the interior to feature a lighter dual-tone cabin instead of the all-black interior seen in the Vitara Brezza. It is also expected to get different exterior colour options.

It will be powered by the same 1.5-litre petrol engine as the Brezza, which makes 105PS of power and 138N of torque. The Urban Cruiser will get the same transmission options: a 5-speed manual and a 4-speed automatic with mild-hybrid tech. While Maruti doesn’t offer the mild-hybrid tech with the manual transmission as of now, it is expected to arrive with the Toyota SUV.

In terms of variants and pricing, expect the Toyota Urban Cruiser to have a higher entry point than the Maruti Vitara Brezza courtesy of a limited variant lineup. As seen with the Glanza, the Toyota SUV might undercut the Maruti offering when it comes to equivalent variants with near-identical feature lists. The Urban Cruiser should be offered with a better warranty package than the Vitara Brezza, which comes with a 2-year/40,000km coverage as standard.

Toyota’s sub-4m SUV offering should have launched soon after Maruti launched the facelifted Vitara Brezza in February. But the pandemic lockdown has delayed the Urban Cruiser till festival time later this year. The delayed launch means the 2020 Urban Cruiser will be a short-lived offering since Toyota and Suzuki will introduce the next-gen Vitara Brezza in 2022 and subsequently, the new-gen Urban Cruise.

The Toyota Urban Cruiser will likely be priced between Rs 8 lakh and Rs 11.5 lakh. It will take on the likes of the Maruti Vitara Brezza, Hyundai Venue, Tata Nexon, Mahindra XUV300, Ford EcoSport and the upcoming Kia Sonet.