Maruti Suzuki e-Vitara Review: Worth The Wait?

Some cars take their sweet time; the anticipation and wait make their arrival even sweeter. Some live up to their hype, some fizzle out that easily. And that brings us to the first all-electric car from Maruti Suzuki. It's called the e-Vitara, and we first saw it at the 2025 Bharat Mobility Expo.

With launch set to happen in January, a year after its reveal, the e-Vitara arrives in a space where there are some well-established rivals. So, is the e-Vitara worth the wait, or is it too little, too late? Let’s find out.

Maruti Suzuki E-Vitara Review: Exterior

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First things first, the dimensions. The e-Vitara is almost as large as the Hyundai Creta Electric, one of its many rivals. The styling is new yet familiar, with Y-shaped LED headlights, strong character lines, heavy body cladding all around, 18-inch alloy wheels, and seductively flared rear wheel arches that look fabulous from the ORVMs. The rear is a bit of an awkward stance to look at – the execution of the tail lamp bars could have been better, and the tight rear window, petite roof-mounted spoiler, and chunky bumpers are all design elements that look great individually, but don’t come together cohesively.

Its road presence might not look as big or imposing as some of its rivals. And that might be owing to this lack of cohesive design.

Well, looks are subjective, but one definitive thing is that the e-Vitara is not chasing after those who enjoy explaining their car to neighbours. It’s after the people who - like billions of us Indians - want their EV to just work right. And in that sense, this design tells you exactly what kind of electric car this is going to be.

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Maruti Suzuki E-Vitara Review: Interior

Step inside, and the e-Vitara, in a typical Maruti Suzuki style, isn’t trying to overwhelm or impress you in the first five seconds. This cabin is new and nothing that we have ever seen in Maruti’s line-up. But it still somehow feels familiar.

I’d like to start with the steering, which is two-spoke, a first for Maruti. And it is not circular. It’s flattened on top and bottom ends, and this feels good to hold compared to the square-ish steering in the Mahindra BE6, another of e-Vitara’s rivals.

Also Read: India-Spec Maruti Suzuki e-Vitara: All You Need To Know

Now, where the BE6 is the most radical thing you’d experience in terms of cabin, the e-Vitara is the polar opposite. It's conventional. The infotainment and MID binnacle are conventional. The floating centre console is conventional. The cupholders, steering-mounted controls, and the door pad (with the only strip of ambient lighting) are conventional. And the one thing that isn't conventional, is the Human-Machine-Interface or HMI in technical terms, is how you operate this circular gear selector.

One of the comfiest seats comes from Maruti. Take the last-gen Swift’s seats, for instance, which were very well-designed. In the same way, these seats are equally so. Even after spending one and a half days and 770 km in these, it never gave me a reason to complain. If I had to complain, though, it would be the aesthetics - or the lack of - by putting the hazard button here in the centre with such a large bezel. The dashboard plastic could have been better, and I have some complaints about the screens.

The interface of the 10.25-inch infotainment system feels like it belongs to pre-Covid era. It’s configurable, and Maruti’s screen was never the flashiest but more of a form-over-function. But in a time where cars have started giving you a tablet, triple-screen setup and whatnot, this feels like a step back in comparison. The driver’s display, too, isn’t as modern as it should be. It’s configurable but monochromatic.

Also Read: Maruti Suzuki E Vitara Range, Kerb Weight, Performance Figures Revealed

And the complaint continues in the back seat. The knee-up position was the first problem EVs faced when they were mere conversions of the ICE platform into an EV. This e-Vitara makes use of the e-HEARTECT platform, which, on paper, shouldn’t be the same as the standard ICE car but does feel like it over here. Many new EVs have sorted this problem, but it persists over here. The headroom, too, isn’t great for my 5.6' frame. Sitting two at the back would be comfortable, where you get a folding armrest with a cupholder. Three might not be the best bet.

Even the boot at around 306 litres is large enough by hatchback standards, and not by this segment. And that’s only when the seats are pushed ahead. Its loading lip is rather high too, but fold down the seats to liberate over 500 litres.

Maruti Suzuki E-Vitara Review: Driving

Now you know that the e-Vitara production commenced in India, and this one is exported to the UK market. It’s essential to know this because the ride quality is stiffly sprung, like it's meant for European roads. It's not uncomfortable, but it isn't as pliant as some of the other EVs out there. And you do feel that discomfort and unsettledness when you encounter badly repaired roads.

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Then there's the power delivery, which is smooth, very smooth and linear. Not neck-snapping quick, and it doesn’t feel like it has 170-odd horsepower. But be assured that it will never bore you. You do feel it's slightly restrained to focus on efficiency, like any other Maruti. But it's not boring. Its power delivery is addictive. It pulls hard when you floor it. And this is one aspect of EVs that the e-Vitara has got just right.

There are three regen settings, but none of them is a one-pedal setup. And the weird thing is, you don't have paddle shifters like other EVs. You have a button to engage the regen; otherwise, there’s no regen. Also, you cannot change the regeneration setting on the fly. Which means, when you activate this regen, it activates in a single setting - low-medium-high, and you cannot change this on the go. So, every time you want a different regen setting, you must park it first and then change the setting.

There are drive modes too, but there’s no real difference between the Eco and Normal modes. You also get Sport mode, which makes the throttle response sharper but also gets twitchy at times. I have already spoken about the ride, which is stiff, but the steering response is good. It’s light, easy to manoeuvre, but it goes three turns lock-to-lock, which makes it slightly slow when you want to push it. But it's well weighted, comfortable, and easy to live with this steering setup.

The claimed ARAI range of the e-Vitara is 543 km under the ARAI cycle. I clocked 770kms with this one, as part of India Goes Electric, and I did notice a few things. The first charge from 100 per cent took me 330kms, and it had 14 per cent juice left, which was good enough for another 63-64 kms. That means a realistic range of 400 km. But then you also need to consider that it was highway speed through and through, even hitting triple-digit speeds on a few occasions. The next day, on full charge, the indicated range was around 415 km, and it could have achieved most of it if we hadn’t stopped for a top-up. So right now. I would consider a realistic range of 420-440 km in the real-world conditions for this bigger 61kWh battery pack.

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As for the charging, on our road trip, we charged it with a Nexa e-Charger at the dealership, at a 60kW gun, and the car was sipping in 59.49kW. While at it, let me tell you one of the reasons why Maruti has delayed the launch of their first electric car. The charging infra. The upper hand they have over other manufacturers is the vast sales and service network, and Maruti has leveraged that first.

Conclusion

And talking about delay, the e-Vitara will be launched in India in January, a year after its reveal, when it's already on sale internationally. Because here, they need to get the pricing right to disrupt the establishment of cars like the MG Windsor EV, Hyundai Creta EV and the Tata Curvv EV. And here's where the e-Vitara needs to play its strongest card. Because it's not the most revolutionary, it's the least risky, like any Maruti car ought to be. And cynicism demands we ask the hard question. And the question is - is this too little too late?

Because had it arrived a couple of years earlier, it would have been a game changer, but the rules of the game have now changed. And this one is not moving the goalposts any further. So who is the e-Vitara for? If you want your EV to stand out and turn heads, you will find better options. But if you are someone who trusts Maruti, who wants an EV that behaves like a Maruti, who values reliability over flamboyance. The e-Vitara suddenly makes a lot of sense. It's not without faults, though. But would you buy it depends entirely on how Indian you still are about buying a car. Because sometimes, the last one to arrive is the one that stays the longest.

Pictures by Arvind Salhan