Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder Hybrid Road Test

After a couple of rebadging schemes, the Urban Cruiser Hyryder is the first product born out of the collaboration between two automotive giants. It was co-developed alongside the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara and this collaboration brought together the best of many worlds – hybrid, mild-hybrid, AWD, CNG alternative, the option of an automatic gearbox, new-age features, safety, and a blend of performance and frugality. But is it enough to take on the fight against the well-established Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos?

We first experienced the Hyryder Hybrid in September 2022. Now, let us take a finer look at Toyota’s C-segment SUV with a hybrid powertrain and find out whether it has what it takes to compete in a fierce segment.

With European-esque styling going for it, the Hyryder looks even more handsome in darker shades. Catching attention is it’s the sleek-split headlamp design while the rest of the fascia is also fresh to the eyes and looks appeasing, if not too flashy or too poignant. In profile, the contrast roof adds a necessary character to the silhouette, which otherwise looks quite plane-jane in single-tone.

What’d have done wonders to the overall stance of the Hyryder is a taller height. A taller bodyshell would not only have credited the Hyryder more street presence, but it would have also helped with second-row headroom. Otherwise, the long-nose, squared-off wheel arches, missing shoulder line, and upright tailgate with an abrupt cut at the tail lamp level gives the Hyryder a unique silhouette.

At the back, the sleek pair of tail lamps is brilliantly designed to accommodate two C-section crab-pincer-like illuminations. Apart from them, the vertically-stacked rear reflectors integrating into the body’s creases are notable design elements at the back.

Highlighting its hybrid nature on the inside is a ‘blue’-finished start/stop button. There’s an all-digital instrument cluster here which gives out loads of information, but we’d have preferred slightly better graphics/interface as this one starts to look boring after a while. Next up, with the nine-inch touchscreen unit stacked atop you get the newest interface from Maruti. It inherently wears a dark theme, which would be preferable to those who run similar dark themes on their phones.

Next, the brown-black dual-tone cabin gets soft-touch finishes cleverly used on the brown colour inserts, and these won’t be soiled easily compared to, say, white/beige interior. Then, their combination with silver inserts feels nice too. And the ergonomics all around won’t give a reason to complain either. All the buttons are easy to reach and although not the finest, they feel built to last.

On the flip side, plastic in some areas – like on and around the gear lever, the lower half of the dashboard, and dead buttons on the centre console – doesn’t feel at home in a car asking over Rs 18-20 lakh.

While the seats are large and supportive, the seat base could have been wider. But the backrest holds you snugly and there’s also good support lower down the neck. Add to it the ventilated seat function, which comes as a relief in our scorching summers. Moving to the back, there’s ample leg space, thanks to the long wheelbase, but the headroom here is surely compromised.

For my height (I am 5’5”), only a couple of centimetres were left to spare above my head. So, the taller passengers would be brushing their heads on the ceiling. But thankfully, the seat recline angle and the seat base are fairly comfortable. Then, space for the middle passenger is hampered by the air vents and raised floor. On the upside though, the provision of large windows, rear-quarter windows, and a massive panoramic sunroof make the second-row bench a good place to spend long hours in.

On the practicality-front, there’s space below the centre console to accommodate a large smartphone, two cupholders in the centre console, and some space below the driver’s armrest as well. Even the door pads are large enough to hold a litre bottle with a large space behind it. Now, boot space is a small compromise hybrid buyers will have to bear. At 225 litres, it is 100 litres less compared to the non-hybrid versions, owing to the placement of the battery pack, but that’s a fair tradeoff. The boot space can still swallow a couple of cabin-size bags with a little room to spare.

To keep up with the competition, there’s an overflowing feature list here. You get an LED for the projector, DRLs, and tail lamps, 17-inch dual-tone wheels, and a panoramic sunroof. Adding to creature comfort is a nine-inch floating touchscreen with wireless smartphone connectivity, cooled front seats, auto AC, ambient lighting, cruise control, auto headlamps, wireless charger, a 360-degree camera, heads-up display, auto-dimming IRVM, and Toyota’s i-Connect connected car tech.

In terms of safety, it comes with six airbags, disc brakes for rear wheels, ABS with EBD, TPMS, rear parking sensors, three-pointed seat belts for all passengers, and hill assist. The only things the Hyryder misses out on are some feel-good features, like electric adjustment for seats, some level of ADAS, and a premium sound system.

What we have here is a 1.5-litre petrol engine that comes from Toyota’s stable. On its own, the three-cylinder has an output of 91bhp/122Nm. Then, an electric motor is added which puts out 59kW/141bhp fed from a separate lithium-ion battery pack. This ‘strong’ hybrid will always start in the EV mode and will crank up the engine when the battery is drained. That said, at any speed under lighter loads and throttle inputs, the system is capable of running on battery power alone. So, keep a light right foot and you’d rarely hear the three-cylinder waking up from its slumber.

Toyota’s hybrid expertise is prominent in its seamless transition from EV mode to petrol mode and you’d be hard-pressed to pinpoint when it happens. It’s when the vibrations (not as prominent, mind you) kick in that you realize that the ICE is in action, more so because the EV mode is just that silent. Complementing the powertrain is a smooth and nifty eCVT.

Off the mark, the going is smooth and brisk, thanks to the EV mode. It might not have the outright grunt of diesel or the peppy nature of four-cylinder petrol, but the hybrid has its positives when driving in the city. Be it making for the small-gap overtake in the city or pulling away at highway speeds, the instant torque is appreciable. With a 0-100kmph time of 12.40 seconds, it might not be as quick as, say, its turbo-petrol counterparts. Meanwhile, roll-on acceleration is fairly better than expected, with 20-80kmph achieved in 7.55 seconds and the 40-100kmph run in 9.21 seconds.

There’s a B mode on the gear lever, which aims to increase the system dependency on the battery and EV mode. This kicks in the regen slightly more than usual. There’re no braking regen levels like in a proper BEV, but as soon as you go near the brakes, the sign on the instrument cluster prompts that the battery is being charged. So, you could be doing 90kmph on the highway with the light throttle in EV mode without burning a drop of fuel.

As for the ride quality, the Hyryder goes over road imperfections with a sense of solidness. It does get busy on irregular surfaces but the Hyryder manages to take astride most of the imperfections without sending them inside the cabin. Even vertical movements over longer undulations are minimal, and that’s assuring when holding highway speeds. Although there’s good grip in the tyres, the lack of feedback from the steering and some body movement makes it less fun than expected. When you want to put the anchor down, the brake pedal offers a good bite, albeit a bit artificial owing to the braking-regen hardware.

At the end of our tested fuel-efficiency run, the Hyryder Hyrbid returned a mileage of 17.7kmpl in the city and an even more impressive 27.38kmpl on the highway. A bigger battery size could have improved the city mileage further. On the other hand, out on the highway, the battery was being continuously charged and in turn, it shut off the engine regularly when cruising. With a realistic overall mileage of just over 20kmpl and a fuel tank capacity of 45 litres, a realistic range of around 900 kilometres can be expected between tankfuls.

For the hybrid version of the Urban Cruiser Hyryder, there are three variants to choose from. The S retails at Rs 18.42 lakh, while the G version is priced at Rs 21.19 lakh. The range-topping V version, that we had, carries a price tag of Rs 22.94 lakh (all prices are on-road, Mumbai). For the hybrid alternative, only the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara offers a strong hybrid powertrain in its segment. Other alternatives for the Hyryder include Hyundai Creta, Kia Seltos, MG Astor, Volkswagen Taigun, and Skoda Kushaq.

Toyota has managed a well-rounded package with the Urban Cruiser Hyryder. It looks fresh and at the same time, the cabin is laden with features. There’s no complaining about its ergonomics along with space and practicality. Behind the wheel, the Hyryder hybrid is comfortable to drive and adequately does the job of being a well-rounded family SUV. Lastly, backing up the Hyryder is Toyota’s reliability and aftersales service. It doesn’t offer a diesel engine alternative though, which might be off-putting to some buyers. But it has the potential of grabbing a large slice of the C-SUV segment, if not the entire pie.

Pictures by Kaustubh Gandhi