5 Best SUVs for Hilly and Off-Road Terrain in India (2026)

Five SUVs in India are genuinely worth considering for hilly and rough terrain, and only two of them have low-range gearing: the Maruti Jimny at ₹12.54 lakh and the Toyota Fortuner at about ₹51.32 lakh. The other three, the Grand Vitara, Victoris and Hyryder, use on-demand all-wheel drive built for wet tarmac and light trails. All five sit within 15 mm of each other on ground clearance, which is exactly why that number decides so little.

Ground clearance gets most of the credit for a hill-capable SUV, but it only describes what a car can drive over without scraping. What decides whether it copes on a steep wet climb or a rutted track is the drivetrain: a genuine low-range 4x4 built for torque multiplication, or an on-demand system built to find grip on slippery tarmac. The two are not interchangeable.

This list covers five SUVs judged on how they handle hilly and rough terrain rather than everyday driving.

Key takeaways

• Maruti Jimny: the only Maruti here on a ladder-frame chassis with genuine low-range gearing, and the cheapest four-wheel drive on this list at ₹12.54 lakh.
• Toyota Fortuner: the one body-on-frame 4x4 here, with a low-range transfer case and a lockable rear differential, at more than four times the Jimny's price.
• Maruti Grand Vitara ALLGRIP: the cheaper of the two Maruti AWD crossovers, at about ₹18.05 lakh.
• Maruti Victoris ALLGRIP: the same ALLGRIP Select system, but only on the range-topping trim at ₹18.84 lakh, which also makes it the only car here with a current 5-star crash rating.
• Toyota Hyryder AWD: the same hardware as the Grand Vitara, restricted to a single petrol automatic grade.
• Only two of the five publish approach and departure angles, which makes paper comparison of the rest impossible.

The five compared

Model (trim)	Price	Drivetrain	Ground clearance	Low range
Maruti Jimny (Zeta MT)	₹12.54 lakh	ALLGRIP PRO 4x4	210 mm	Yes, 2H/4H/4L
Maruti Grand Vitara (Alpha ALLGRIP)	about ₹18.05 lakh	ALLGRIP Select AWD	210 mm	No
Toyota Hyryder (V AWD AT)	about ₹18.72 lakh	On-demand AWD	210 mm	No
Maruti Victoris (ZXi+ AT 4W AllGrip)	₹18.84 lakh	ALLGRIP Select AWD	210 mm	No
Toyota Fortuner (2.8 diesel 4x4 AT)	about ₹51.32 lakh	Part-time 4x4	225 mm	Yes, H4/L4
Where these numbers come from. The Jimny, Grand Vitara and Victoris figures are read off Maruti's own current brochures, and the Victoris and Jimny prices off the Arena and NEXA price pages. Toyota publishes no ex-showroom prices in India, so the Hyryder and Fortuner prices are dealer-listed. Maruti publishes no boot volume for the Grand Vitara or Victoris, and neither Maruti nor Toyota publishes approach or departure angles for the Grand Vitara, Victoris or Hyryder.

What actually makes an SUV capable here

Ground clearance tells you what you can drive over. It says nothing about what happens when a wheel loses grip.

A low-range transfer case multiplies torque for steep, loose or technical ground, letting the car crawl without slipping the clutch. An on-demand AWD system sends drive to whichever wheel still has grip, which is genuinely useful on a wet mountain road but is not built for the same punishment and has no lower gearing to fall back on.

Hill hold and hill descent control matter as much as either on a real mountain road, preventing rollback on a climb and runaway on a descent. Approach, departure and ramp breakover angles, where published, show how steep a slope or sharp a crest a car can cross before its bumpers or underbody hit first. Only the Jimny and Fortuner publish theirs.

1. Maruti Jimny

Price: ₹12.54 lakh ex-showroom for the Zeta MT.

The Jimny is the only Maruti here built on a ladder frame rather than a crossover platform, and the only one with real low-range gearing. Where the ALLGRIP crossovers are tuned for wet tarmac, the Jimny is built to leave the road, and Maruti fits that hardware identically on both trims rather than reserving it for the range-topper.

Terrain hardware:

• ALLGRIP PRO with a low-range transfer gear, shiftable between 2H, 4H and 4L
• Three-link rigid axle suspension front and rear, standard on every trim, which presses the opposite wheel down when one is lifted by an obstacle
• Ground clearance 210 mm, approach angle 36 degrees, departure angle 46 degrees, ramp breakover 24 degrees
• Brake limited-slip differential, hill hold and hill descent control, standard on every trim

Engine: 1.5-litre K15B with idle start-stop, 77.1 kW (104.8 PS) at 6,000 rpm and 134.2 Nm at 4,000 rpm.

Mileage: 16.94 km/l on the manual, 16.39 km/l on the automatic.

Gearbox: 5-speed manual here, with a 4-speed automatic on the same drivetrain.

Safety: 6 airbags standard on every variant. The India-spec five-door Jimny has no published Bharat NCAP or Global NCAP rating.

Where it falls short: four seats rather than five, and the smallest boot here by a wide margin. Both are direct consequences of the short, low-range-capable body.

2. Maruti Grand Vitara

Price: about ₹18.05 lakh ex-showroom for the Alpha ALLGRIP, the entry point to the Grand Vitara's all-wheel drive.

ALLGRIP Select is built for slippery tarmac, wet hill roads and light trails, and Maruti is straightforward about that scope. There is no low-range gearing, but four electronically selected modes change how the car distributes drive on loose ground.

Terrain hardware:

• ALLGRIP Select with Auto, Sport, Snow and Lock modes on a push-and-turn dial
• Lock mode brakes a spinning wheel and sends torque to the wheels still gripping
• Ground clearance 210 mm; Maruti publishes no approach or departure angle
• AWD comes only with the petrol engine and automatic gearbox, never the Strong Hybrid

Engine: 1.5-litre petrol, 75.8 kW (103.06 PS) at 6,000 rpm and 139 Nm at 4,300 rpm, with a 6-speed automatic.

Mileage: 19.20 km/l on the ALLGRIP automatic, against 20.58 km/l for the two-wheel-drive automatic.

Features: drive mode selector, Head-Up Display, 360 View Camera, wireless charging, automatic climate control with rear vents.

Safety: 6 airbags standard with ESP, hill hold and tyre pressure monitoring. No published Bharat NCAP rating.

Where it falls short: no low-range gearing, so deep ruts, loose rock and steep unpaved climbs sit outside what this system is for. The Grand Vitara also offers no ADAS on any trim, in any fuel.

3. Toyota Urban Cruiser Hyryder

Price: about ₹18.72 lakh ex-showroom for the V AWD AT, a dealer-listed figure since Toyota publishes no ex-showroom prices in India.

The Hyryder shares its AWD hardware with the Grand Vitara, both being built on the same line, but Toyota gates it harder: one petrol automatic grade, and nothing on the hybrid range that otherwise carries the Hyryder's efficiency story.

Terrain hardware:

• Electronically controlled on-demand AWD, mechanically related to ALLGRIP Select
• No low-range gearing
• Hill descent control, fitted on the AWD model
• Ground clearance 210 mm; Toyota publishes no approach or departure angle for the Hyryder

Engine: 1.5-litre petrol, 103.06 PS at 6,000 rpm and 136.8 Nm at 4,400 rpm. Toyota prints a slightly lower torque figure for this engine than Maruti does for the same unit.

Mileage: 19.39 km/l on the AWD manual, against 21.12 km/l for the two-wheel-drive manual.

Safety: the last published result is a 4-star adult and 3-star child Global NCAP rating from 2022, tested under an older protocol that predates the current six-airbag specification. No Bharat NCAP rating has been published.

Where it falls short: AWD is confined to one trim and gearbox, with no low range once you have it, and the Surround View Monitor is fitted to the V grade alone. Toyota's brochure lists no ADAS on any Hyryder variant.

4. Maruti Victoris

Price: ₹18.84 lakh ex-showroom for the ZXi+ AT 4W AllGrip, the only Victoris with all-wheel drive apart from the ₹19.42 lakh (O) version.

The Victoris runs the same ALLGRIP Select system as the Grand Vitara, but only on the range-topping automatic, so four-wheel drive here always arrives bundled with the car's full equipment list rather than as a standalone choice.

Terrain hardware:

• ALLGRIP Select with the same Auto, Sport, Snow and Lock modes
• No low-range gearing
• Ground clearance 210 mm; Maruti publishes no approach or departure angle
• AWD only on ZXi+ and ZXi+(O) automatics, petrol only, never the Strong Hybrid or CNG

Engine: 1.5-litre K15C petrol, 103.06 PS at 6,000 rpm and 139 Nm at 4,300 rpm, with a 6-speed automatic.

Features: Level 2 ADAS including adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist, panoramic sunroof, powered tailgate with gesture control, 360-degree HD camera with 11 views, ventilated front seats.

Safety: 6 airbags standard. 5-star Bharat NCAP, scoring 31.66 of 32 for adult occupant protection and 43 of 49 for child occupant protection, plus a separate 5-star Global NCAP result. It is the only car here with a current Indian crash-test rating.

Where it falls short: the same terrain ceiling as the Grand Vitara, and ALLGRIP cannot be had without paying for the full features list.

5. Toyota Fortuner

Price: about ₹51.32 lakh ex-showroom for the 2.8 diesel 4x4 automatic, dealer-listed.

The Fortuner is the only vehicle here on a traditional body-on-frame chassis with a genuine part-time 4x4 system. It belongs in the same broad category as the Jimny rather than the ALLGRIP crossovers, scaled up considerably in size, price and hardware, and it is the pick for terrain the other four are not designed to cross.

Terrain hardware:

• Part-time 4x4 with selectable high and low range
• Lockable rear differential on 4x4 variants
• Active traction control and downhill assist control, standard on 4x4 trims
• Approach angle about 29 degrees and departure angle about 25 degrees, converted from the radian figures on Toyota's specification sheet
• Ground clearance 225 mm, the highest here

Engine: 2.8-litre diesel, 150 kW (204 PS) and 500 Nm on the automatic, 420 Nm on the manual.

Safety: no published India-spec Bharat NCAP or Global NCAP rating. It has been rated 5 stars by ASEAN NCAP for the Southeast Asian market, a different protocol that does not necessarily describe the India-spec car.

Where it falls short: more than four times the price of the Jimny, and its size and turning circle make it a far less practical daily car. That is the trade for hardware nothing else here carries.

Conclusion

Ground clearance puts four of these five within 15 mm of each other, which is precisely why it is the wrong number to shop on. The dividing line is the drivetrain: two cars with low-range transfer cases at opposite ends of the price range, and three on-demand AWD crossovers built for wet tarmac and light trails.

Match the drivetrain to the terrain rather than to the budget. A buyer who sticks to wet mountain roads or the occasional rutted farm track does not need a low-range transfer case, or the size and running costs that come with one. A buyer who genuinely leaves the road will find that no amount of ground clearance on an AWD crossover substitutes for one.

FAQs

Which of these has genuine low-range 4x4?

The Maruti Jimny and the Toyota Fortuner. The Grand Vitara and Victoris use ALLGRIP Select, an on-demand AWD system with no low range, and the Hyryder's system is on-demand only as well.

Which has the highest ground clearance?

The Toyota Fortuner at 225 mm. The other four are all 210 mm.

Which publish approach and departure angles?

Only the Jimny, at 36 and 46 degrees, and the Fortuner, at roughly 29 and 25 degrees. Maruti and Toyota publish neither figure for the Grand Vitara, Victoris or Hyryder.

Is ALLGRIP Select the same as a 4x4 system?

No. It is an electronically controlled all-wheel-drive system without low-range gearing, built for slippery tarmac and light trails. A genuine 4x4 like the Jimny's or Fortuner's adds a low-range transfer gear for steep or technical ground.

What is the cheapest way here to get four-wheel drive?

The Maruti Jimny at ₹12.54 lakh, which includes low-range capability as standard rather than as a higher-trim option.