Maruti Grand Vitara clocks over one lakh bookings as waiting period climbs

Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara could soon be threatening the leadership of Korean SUVs in India which has reached hegemonic proportions. India's largest carmaker has clocked more than one lakh bookings since its launch during the festive period last year, which shows its growing demand in the market. The carmaker currently has more than 90,000 pending orders for the compact SUV hinting at longer waiting period in days to come. The Grand Vitara rivals the likes of Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos, besides its technical cousin Toyota Urban Cruiser HyRyder, among other SUVs in its segment.

Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara was launched in September last year at a starting price of ₹10.45 lakh (ex-showroom). Available in four variants, the price of the SUV goes up to ₹19.65 lakh (ex-showroom). It offers mild hybrid, strong hybrid as well as four-wheel drive options. It is also one of the first SUVs in its segment to be offered with CNG kit. The price of the Grand Vitara S-CNG starts from ₹12.85 lakh and go up to ₹14.84 lakh (ex-showroom).

According to report by Hindustan Times, Maruti delivered more than 32,000 units of the SUV last month. The report says that the carmaker is currently facing a backlog of around 90,350 bookings on the Grand Vitara SUV. This is one of the reasons why waiting period to drive home a Grand Vitara could go higher in coming days.

Under the hood, the Grand Vitara comes equipped with Maruti's new generation K-series 1.5-litre, Dual Jet, Dual VVT petrol engine. It can churn out 99 bhp of power and 136 Nm of peak torque. The engine comes mated to a five-speed manual or a six-speed automatic transmission. There is also an e-CVT transmission used for the strong hybrid variant. The CNG versions are only offered with manual gearbox and generates 86.63 bhp of power and 121.5 Nm of peak torque.

Watch: Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara: First Drive Review

Maruti Suzuki claims the CNG versions can return fuel efficiency of 26.6 km/kg. The strong-hybrid version claims to return around 28 kmpl while the mild-hybrid version claim to offer around 20 kmpl.