Toyota Urban Cruiser Is Back: Is It A Rebadged Brezza Again?

The Toyota Urban Cruiser is back in its next-gen avatar and this time, it's more than just a rebadged Maruti Suzuki Brezza! It still is based on a platform used by Suzuki’s new e Vitara.

In fact, a deeper look at the Urban Cruiser reveals it to be a redesigned e Vitara. In many ways then, it remains a rebadged and redesigned Suzuki SUV. Huh!

Nonetheless, the Urban Cruiser will bring a Toyota badged electric vehicle to India, which is a big change from the strong hybrid vehicles that the brand sells locally. Toyota is yet to reveal the India launch plans for the Urban Cruiser. 

Expected to slot in above the Urban Cruiser Hyryder in Toyota’s lineup, this EV could take the fight to Tata’s Nexon EV and Mahindra’s upcoming BE 6 electric SUV while joining Suzuki’s e Vitara to further the cause of Japanese electric vehicles. 

New Urban Cruiser Still Based On A Maruti

The Urban Cruiser and e Vitara share Suzuki’s new HEARTECT-e platform developed solely for electric vehicles. Although Toyota does some degree of badge engineering to differentiate its vehicles from the Suzuki variants, the new Urban Cruiser achieves a fine balance between freshness and familiarity. From some angles, you can find strong traces of the Suzuki e Vitara. 

While the side profile of the vehicle bears a stark resemblance to the e Vitara, Toyota has given the Urban Cruiser a distinctive new nose with a large chrome bar decorating the fake radiator grille. The rear though, looks largely identical to the the e Vitara despite the differently styled rear taillamp unit. 

The same goes for the interior trim that looks like a 100 per cent photocopy of the e Vitara’s plush cabin. The only differentiator here is the all-black cabin theme instead of the e Vitara’s part-beige colour panels. The retro-styled aircon vents and the 10.1-inch infotainment screen along with the 10.25-inch instrument cluster remains from the Suzuki car.

This then seems like a case of another Toyota that is a rebadged Suzuki. That’s not bad considering Suzuki’s reputation for building reliable and cost-effective cars. 

Urban Cruiser EV has good performance

For an electric SUV with a wheelbase of 2,700 mm and an overall length of 4,285 metres, the Urban Cruiser delivers big car-like power figures. 

The Urban Cruiser will be available in front-wheel drive and all-wheel drive configurations. The car will rely on a lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery tech. The front-wheel drive variant with a 49 kWh battery will come with 142 hp and 172 hp power output options whereas the AWD version with a 61 kWh battery gets 182 hp as standard. As many of you may have guessed it, the AWD variant gets a dual-motor setup, one of each axle. 

Sadly, Toyota is yet to reveal the claimed range but if the figures from Suzuki are to be referenced, the Urban Cruiser could offer up to 500 km of range on a full charge. 

Toyota Urban Cruiser expected launch date and price

The Urban Cruiser is expected to break cover in India at the upcoming Bharat Mobility Expo 2025 event alongside the Maruti Suzuki e Vitara. Maruti has hinted at launching the e Vitara by March 2025 and we expect Toyota to make its announcements soon after. 

As far as pricing is concerned, Toyota’s rebadged Marutis often command a premium and we expect the same with the Urban Cruiser. 

ALSO READ: 2024 Tata Nexon iCNG Road Test: We Took It For a Spin Around Delhi NCR