The Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, which was launched in September final 12 months and presents a alternative of powertrain choices, has many virtues. One of them particularly caught our eye. The Grand Vitara’s Intelligent Electric Hybrid powertrain boasted a staggering gasoline effectivity of 27.97kpl. Now, that interprets into a spread of 1,258km, contemplating the SUV has a 45-litre gasoline tank capability. So, the query foremost on our minds was: by how a lot may that vary be stretched? What had been the probabilities? Our newest epic drive within the Grand Vitara Intelligent Electric Hybrid was a solution to those questions.  

Our route from Narkanda to Dwarka, spanning 1,779km throughout varied terrains. 

After Google-Mapping quite a few choices, we arrived at an evocative route. We would begin from the mountains, drive throughout the desert, and finish our journey within the Grand Vitara by the ocean. ‘Snow, Sand, Sea’ – it even had a pleasant ring to it. Our drive, we determined, would begin from Narkanda, Himachal Pradesh, contact Pushkar, in Rajasthan, and eventually finish at Jamnagar, in Gujarat. The complete distance was approximated by Google Maps at 1,578km. But doing so on a tankful of petrol gave the impression to be a frightening process, which, after all, is strictly why we determined to go forward with it.

Mountain sledding

Before we bought the Grand Vitara Intelligent Electric Hybrid to Narkanda, we kitted it out with a set of low-rolling-resistance tyres from Apollo within the type of the Apterra Cross. These tyres supply one of the best of each worlds by enhancing the experience high quality in addition to maximising grip over free surfaces by using a block-based tread sample. We merely needed to set the tyres at optimum tyre stress and it was a go.

We started our drive downhill, as the primary snowfall of the season hit Shimla.

Hypermiling in icy situations poses its personal set of challenges. It requires you to anticipate braking factors in addition to modulate the throttle with precision. We topped up the gasoline tank to the brim in Narkanda and started our drive downhill, simply as the primary snowfall of the season hit Shimla and the windscreen framed breathtaking views.

With 45 litres of petrol on board, the journey pc calculated a spread of simply 691km. However, as we headed downhill, the determine began to hit four-digits. Switching the air-conditioner (learn heater) off additional helped issues. The Grand Vitara proved itself on snow in additional methods than one. The SUV is kind of clever and detects icy surfaces, warning drivers of dangers, however since we weren’t driving the AllGrip variant, we left the snow alone and pointed the Grand Vitara’s elegant nostril in the direction of Rajasthan.

The gasoline tank was sealed as we left Narkanda; Grand Vitara is clever sufficient to detect snow.

The drive from Himachal Pradesh to Rajasthan noticed the Grand Vitara glide over pothole-laden highways and cope with some tight twisties. Despite the situations, the journey pc approximated a gasoline effectivity of 50kpl, which is the utmost! Ensuring clean move and constant speeds, we managed to succeed in Paota, in Rajasthan — about 550 kilometres from Shimla — earlier than calling it a day.

Sand browsing

The climate situations in Rajasthan had been friendlier to the hybrid system, in comparison with Himachal Pradesh. Interestingly, the hybrid system begins performing at full fuel solely after the engine heats as much as optimum temperature. While hypermiling may seem like a straightforward process, contemplating common speeds often hover between 40 to 60kph, it’s something however. You find yourself focusing greater than you’ll whereas driving a sportscar, as an illustration. It is taxing, bodily in addition to mentally, however fortunately, the Grand Vitara makes life snug for the motive force. The SUV’s seats are supremely snug. They are broad and simply the correct quantity of agency, apart from, after all, being ventilated. Then, there’s wi-fi charging, Apple CarPlay and the Head Up Display, which lets you observe the battery’s cost in addition to the automobile’s pace, with out having to look away from the highway. All of those options ensured a clean drive on some beautiful stretches of tarmac in Rajasthan.

HUD shows the SoC of the battery; tyre pressures set to really useful figures; bought 43.96kpl!.

As we headed in the direction of Pushkar to point out the Grand Vitara some sand, the fuel-efficiency figures dipped to 43kpl, which turned out to be the bottom quantity on all the drive. There was zero margin for error, so we may by no means actually take detours. But because the Grand Vitara is an SUV, we couldn’t assist however bask in some sand browsing earlier than plunging again into our mission. By the tip of Day 3, we had reached Abu Road on the Gujarat border.

Sight sea-ing

With the gasoline gauge displaying greater than half a tank of petrol accessible, we began the fourth day of our drive on a relatively optimistic be aware. The climate had began to get hotter, which meant that the air-con wanted to be switched on for this a part of the drive. However, the silky clean highways of Gujarat helped our trigger and so did the Grand Vitara’s hybrid powertrain. With a mixed output of 115hp, this Maruti Suzuki feels easy on the freeway. We weren’t actually exercising our proper foot, however the lowdown grunt within the Intelligent Electric Hybrid got here in very helpful.

Gujarat’s silky clean highways helped our trigger and so did the grand vitara’s hybrid powertrain.

The Grand Vitara’s mature highway manners added to the driving pleasure as properly. It’s a correct SUV with a flat experience over all types of surfaces, which meant we may carry regular speeds all through our drive. And after spending nearly 45 hours within the cabin of the Grand Vitara, we made it to Jamnagar on the finish of Day 4. 

The Grand Vitara had sipped simply 40.47 litres until Dwarka, nonetheless some juice left within the tank.

The seashore at Jamnagar is, for varied causes, not very photo-friendly. So the subsequent morning, we went alongside the coast in search of an applicable and scenic place to doc the tip of our journey. Thankfully, the Grand Vitara nonetheless had a spread of over 250km, regardless of clocking over 1,600km on the journey meter! When we lastly made it to the scenic Shivrajpur Beach, close to Dwarka, we famous, to our nice satisfaction, that the journey meter had already crossed 1,771km with an approximate vary of 104km. And once we lastly reached the petrol station after driving for an additional 7km, the vary stood at 101km. The Grand Vitara had delivered an astonishing gasoline effectivity of 43.96kpl after clocking 1,779.3km. It nonetheless had greater than 100km left within the tank, which may simply be stretched by one other 100km. Could we try 2,000km on a tankful? Now that’s a narrative for an additional day.

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