Old Hyundai Creta To Maruti Vitara Brezza: Top 5 Most Popular SUVs In India In Off-road Livery

Gone are the days when the term “Sports Utility Vehicle” (SUV) refers to sufficiently rugged-looking purpose-built off-roaders. Today the word “SUV” is widely used for many vehicles that are neither built on the ladder-frame chassis nor have an AWD/4WD system. That said, the advent of budget-end compact SUVs or soft-roaders has made a big change in the way we think about an SUV. Currently, there are a number of compact SUVs available on sale in the market that, albeit having bold exterior design and high ground clearance, are no match to the “true-blue” off-roaders.

So how would the B-SUVs look like in the off-road-ready versions? From the Hyundai Creta to the Maruti Vitara Brezza, here are the top 5 most popular SUVs in India and how they look in the off-road avatars.

1. Old Hyundai Creta

It is not an exacerbation to say that Hyundai Creta has been the ultimate success story of Hyundai in the Indian market. It was back in 2015 when we first say the Hyundai Creta hit the Indian showrooms and earlier this year when the Creta comes back in its latest-gen avatar. In its original guise, both old vs new version, the Hyundai Creta looks bold and modern, gets on hands many features while keeping powerful engines under the bonnet, all the ways making it instantly become the most sought-after SUV for urban driving and business trip. However, for the fans of off-roaders, those are not enough.

Our in-house automotive illustrator, Shoeb Kalania has worked on the speculative rendering of an off-road-ready Hyundai Creta that was dubbed Creta X. Unlike the regular version, the Hyundai Creta X looks exciting with a dual-tone exterior paint option, in the shades of metallic light blue and black. Based on the old-gen model, the Creta X features a redesigned front bumper finished in black that looks more rugged than the standard unit. The gloss black treatment has been given on the front grille and ORVMs that further complements the two-tone exterior theme of the model. The 17-inch machine-cut alloy wheels are replaced by the smaller wheels shod with the off-road spec tyres. There’s also a custom luggage box mounted on the cross-bars of the roof on the Creta X.

2. Tata Nexon

The Tata Nexon has been in the sweet spot for its safety package and unconventional design that easily helps it attract a lot of attention on the roads. From this, the Tata Nexon has quickly carved a niche for itself in the sub-4m SUV market. However, while the Tata Nexon looks really modern, it doesn’t look like a vehicle that can venture off the roads until we look at this digital illustration.

Upfront, the off-road-oriented Nexon features a custom bumper that accommodates a large scuff plate, auxiliary lamps, and a winch. The SUV looks much more rugged with some other added features like roof-mounted fog lamps, custom rims with aggressive all-terrain tyres, a snorkel for water wading capacity, spare wheels, and most importantly, a raised ride height. This Tata Nexon sports a custom two-tone paint scheme with yellow-tinted headlamps that enhances its macho-looking silhouette, no?

3. Mahindra TUV300

Mahindra has been well-known for building already-rugged boxy-looking SUVs like the Thar that has won the hearts and minds of the off-road enthusiasts. In 2015, the Mumbai-based home-grown company launched the Mahindra TUV300 that uses the body-on-frame construction but it’s not meant to really go off-road. As claimed by Mahindra, the TUV300 took huge inspirations from a battle tank design that has, again, inspired our digital artist to work on the off-road-focused version of it.

It seems like our illustrator has taken the claim seriously as the rendered TUV300 has been given the tank tracks, giving the SUV a very interesting look. The rendering even shows the modified Mahindra TUV300 on the snow that shows how capable it would be to handle the toughest conditions. The tank tracks can help the SUV gain good traction on the slippery surface. That’s why the modified TUV300 here was named “Snow Warrior”.

The original grille of the TUV300 has been removed to make room for the matte black horizontal unit. The bumper remains in stock but it now features two tow hooks. There are diamond steel plats on the lower section of the doors that not only improves its visual quotient but also protect it from the surroundings. Blacked-out claddings are given on the wheel arches while the Zebra-inspired graphics on the sides and mirrors do make the SUV look a bit wild.

4. Ford Ecosport

Another subcompact SUV that is also very popular in the Indian market is the Ford Ecosport. Indeed, the Ford Ecosport should be among the very first offering that paved a path for other sub-four-metre SUVs to enter India. Over a long period of presence, the Ford Ecosport still cements a strong foothold in the country, despite the arrivals and upcoming arrivals of many modern vehicles in the domestic space.

In the stock form, the Ford Ecosport garners a huge fanbase for its bold design, feature-laden cabin, potent engines as well as well-sorted dynamics. Nevertheless, the Ecosport still lacks some traits to survive the harsh driving conditions.

With the same in mind, a digital automotive illustrator has released the off-road spec Ford Ecosport that was shown in the image. The modified Ford Ecosport comes with a heavy-duty metal front bumper that features an integrated bull bar with a set of auxiliary lamps and two tow hooks. The fenders have been redesigned as well and now accommodate larger wheels and tyres. Some other highlights on the Ecosport off-roader include a snorkel, roof-mounted luggage carrier, roof-mounted LED light bar, snorkel, etc. Like the Nexon, it also features a yellow tint for the headlamps.

5. Maruti Vitara Brezza

An undisputedly best-selling sub-four-metre SUV of India, the Maruti Vitara Brezza is the last model in our list of best off-road SUVs renderings here. Much like the Ecosport and Nexon, the Maruti Vitara Brezza isn’t built to do off-roads. Here’s our exclusive rendering of the off-road-spec Maruti Vitara Brezza that looks completely ready to tackle any kind of terrains.

As per the rendered version, the off-road variant of the Brezza gets a customized front bumper with the huge bull bar covering the entire front end. Some other features include a tow hook, a scuff plate along with a set of auxiliary lamps. Again, there’s also a roof-mounted luggage box to load extra goods on any off-road trips.

That concludes our list of the top five most popular SUVs in India. For more interesting stories, stay tuned and keep yourself updated with IndianAuto.