Arguably even more exciting than the new YRA premium hatchback is Maruti’s Ford EcoSport rival, codenamed YBA seen here for the first time in almost-production ready form in this world-exclusive spy picture.
This all-new Maruti compact SUV will be less than four metres long, have heavily stylised and muscular exterior styling, and will likely wear its spare wheel on its tailgate, even though the car in our spy photos doesn’t have one fitted.
The look draws heavily from the Suzuki iV-4 concept SUV shown at the 2013 Frankfurt motor show, and although the concept has already spawned the new and much bigger Suzuki Vitara SUV in Europe, the YBA will be an even more compact version. It retains the tapering window line, angular tail-lamps and the ‘open-mouthed’ lower air dam. Obviously, some things have been toned down, like the grille, which is a simpler one with horizontal instead of vertical slats. Overall, the YBA’s look is a good mix of sporty and rugged. The wheel arches don’t have excessive cladding, the windscreen is steeply raked back and, thanks to a floating C-pillar, the glasshouse gets a cockpit-like look.
Like the YRA hatchback, this one will also use Maruti’s existing range of engines. As with the YRA hatchback and the Ciaz sedan, this YBA crossover will have to pack in a lot of equipment to seriously take on the EcoSport, so here too, expect a lot of equipment.
Our sources tell us that Maruti may unveil the production version of this all-new compact SUV at the Auto Expo 2016 and it could be called Maruti iV4.
Glenn Noronha
Dhruv Dhaka
Uday Singh
Dipan Sur
Viraaj Bhatnagar
