Who Takes The Honours In The MPV Battle?
Auto Tech Review|March 2019

Maruti Suzuki launched the second generation Ertiga in India a few months back. Based on the fifth-generation HEARTECT platform, the new Ertiga is bigger, broader and lighter. Besides the new platform, Maruti Suzuki has also introduced the Ertiga with a new 1.5 l K-Series petrol engine. The motor now boasts of triple digit horse power figures and generates adequate torque. While the Ertiga comes packed with many features and stands tall for class-leading specifications, we bring it alongside the reliable and robust Honda BR-V to stack up the performance of the Ertiga on multiple fronts. In this comparison test, we pitch the Ertiga with the new 1.5 l, naturally aspirated, four cylinder petrol engine against the 1.5 l, naturally aspirated, four cylinder, i-VTEC petrol engine on the BR-V.

Joshua David Luther
Who Takes The Honours In The MPV Battle?

POWERTRAIN PERFORMANCE & PLATFORM

Both the Ertiga as well as the BR-V with the 1.5 l petrol-powered motors were mated to automatic transmissions. However, while the BR-V gets a CVT, the Ertiga features a four-speed torque converter. Taking a closer look at the performance figures of these petrol engines, we observed that the motor in the Honda BR-V is significantly more powerful than that of the Ertiga. The 1.5 l i-VTEC motor churns out 117 hp at 6,600 rpm and 145 Nm of torque at 4,600 rpm. The Ertiga, on the other hand, produces 103 hp at 6,000 rpm and 138 Nm of torque at 4,400 rpm.

While the power and torque outputs of both engines are an important factor, weight too, has a role to play here. It is therefore interesting to note that the Ertiga, on the fifth generation HEARTECT platform is lighter than the BR-V, built on the extended Brio and Amaze platform. The kerb weight of the BR-V stands at 1,238 kg, while that of the Ertiga stands at 1,135 kg, thus making the Ertiga a whole 103 kg lighter than the BR-V.

During our tests we noted that both Ertiga as well as the BR-V were quick to a 100 km/ph, but both MPVs took over 10 s to get there. Being the lighter of the two, the Ertiga was quicker off the line. The Ertiga was also quicker to 60 km/h in contrast with the Honda BR-V. While the Ertiga breached the 60 km/h mark in 5.59 s, the BR-V crossed this mark in 6.28 s. It is also interesting to note that post the 60 km/h mark, the difference in time elapsed between the BR-V and the Ertiga diminishes. And the BR-V rapidly gains momentum to become quicker than the Ertiga to 80 km/h and then to 100 km/h. While the Ertiga touched 80 km/h in 9.42 s, the BR-V crossed the mark in 9.27 s. In the 0-100 km/h sprint, the BR-V won by crossing the mark in 12.72 s, against the Ertiga’s 13.1 s.

This story is from the March 2019 edition of Auto Tech Review.

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This story is from the March 2019 edition of Auto Tech Review.

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