Toyota removes Urban Cruiser from website. New Brezza-based model coming soon?

Toyota Motor has removed its sub-compact SUV Urban Cruiser from its official website, triggering speculation whether the Japanese auto giant has pulled the plug on it. The Urban Cruiser SUV, which is basically a rebadged version of the Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza, has not had a good run in recent times in terms of sales. Toyota had even offered heavy discounts on the SUV in September, but it failed to lift the numbers during the festive month. Toyota has not issued any statement on removal of the SUV yet.

Toyota Urban Cruiser SUV was launched in India in September, 2020 at a starting price of ₹8.40 lakh (ex-showroom). However, it received price hikes since then and was available at ₹9.03 lakh (ex-showroom). Despite a competitive price list, Urban Cruiser failed to impress Indian buyers as it drew blank last month on sales charts.

As speculation continues whether Toyota has pulled the plug on Urban Cruiser for these reasons, there is also a possibility that the carmaker is probably preparing to launch the upgraded version of the SUV soon. Based on the new generation Maruti Brezza, launched earlier this year, the Urban Cruiser is likely to make a comeback soon.

The Urban Cruiser SUV, as well as the Glanza hatchback, are two of Toyota models based on Maruti cars as part of a deal between the two carmakers. The Glanza is Toyota's version of Baleno.

Toyota used to offer the Urban Cruiser with a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol engine with an advanced Li-on battery featuring integrated starter generator. It was the same engine that powered the previous generation Vitara Brezza. Mated to both manual and automatic transmissions, the Urban Cruiser used to generate 103 hp of power and 138 Nm of peak torque. Besides the Vitara Brezza, the Urban Cruiser rivalled the likes of Tata Nexon, Hyundai Venue, Mahindra XUV300 among others in the sub-compact SUV segment in India.