Suzuki e Vitara: Price the problem

What is it?

It’s been a long time coming, but Suzuki has finally produced its first fully-electric vehicle.

Called e Vitara, it’s a compact crossover SUV that won’t be in dealerships until late-June or early-July, but with pre-orders being taken now.

The e Vitara shares the same platform as the Toyota Urban Cruiser, but with many styling and feature differences.

Both are built in India at Suzuki’s Gujerat factory on its Heartect-e lightweight dedicated electric chassis.

At this stage it’s unlikely that Toyota will be importing the Urban Cruiser.

What’s it cost?

The design of the e Vitara is a major departure from the fairly bland looks of previous Vitara models.

The long-running Suzuki Vitara remains on sale with either petrol or hybrid powertrains, but differs significantly from its EV sibling which is marginally longer but with a significantly longer wheelbase.

This provides additional interior space as well as a bolder, more premium styling and new tech features.

e Vitara is much bolder and more adventurous with a smooth but sculpted exterior sitting above, and surrounded by, prominent black plastic cladding that infers some off-road credentials.

At the front the tall erect bonnet sits over LED headlights and large LED daytime running lights.

There is the usual narrow ‘grille’ that identifies most EVs, with a large Suzuki badge in the centre.

The rear doors have annoying ‘hidden’ handles mounted high on the C pillars, designed to suggest a coupe appearance.

The rear lights have a similar design to those at the front with a full-width light bar linking them.

Both variants come with 18-inch alloy wheels.

Ultra gets a panoramic non-opening glass roof with a retractable sunshade.

There are four colour options. Arctic White is standard.

Bluish Black Pearl and Land Breeze Green are an $890 option with two-tone also available with a Black Pearl roof on the Ultra for $1340.

Standard in both variants is a 10.1-inch touchscreen, with another 10.25-inch screen for the instrument cluster.

There’s a 360-degree view camera as well as front and rear USB-A and USB-C ports.

The infotainment screen falls well short of the sharp high-res screens that we’re used to from Chinese vehicles.

Motion has four-speaker audio with Ultra stepping up to a premium 10-speaker Harman Infinity system.

Standard safety in all e Vitara models includes seven airbags, adaptive cruise control and autonomous emergency braking.

There’s also rear cross-traffic alert, lane keeping assist and departure prevention, forward collision warning, dual sensor brake support, multi-collision baking, high beam assist, front and rear parking sensors and blind spot monitoring.

Ultra AWD adds front LED fog lights, adaptive high beam, hill descent control and a trail mode switch.

The absence of a front centre airbag and a driver monitoring system contributes to a four-star ANCAP rating.

While the lack of the extra airbag is disappointing, not being nagged incessantly by a camera pointing at the driver’s face may well be a positive selling point for many drivers – including us.

What’s it go like?

The biggest design feature comes inside the e Vitara.

The brown seats and trim will not be to everyone’s taste but at least it’s different and we loved it.

The floating centre console is piano black that’s hard to view in bright sunlight and too easy to smudge.

A big plus, at least in our eyes, are physical climate control switches in the centre of the dash.

There are twin, large cupholders in the centre console, although grippers would have helped for smaller containers.

The door bins are large and wide.

There’s also a large space below the centre console for keeping items away from prying eyes.

Ultra gets a smartphone wireless charger at the base of the dashboard.

Some clever design allows rear seat and boot space to be adjusted with the seats able to slide back and forwards.

When the seats are all the way back for maximum legroom, luggage space is just 238 litres.

At the other extreme, legroom is quite cramped but luggage space increases to 310 litres.

With the rear seat backs folded there’s 562 litres.

There is a useful storage compartment beneath the boot floor but no spare wheel.

e Vitara powertrain combines a lithium iron-phosphate (LFP) battery system, electric drive axles and an integrated heat pump battery management system.

The 2WD Motion variant comes with a 49 kWh battery that drives a 106kW/193Nm motor mounted on the front axle.

Ultra increases the battery to 61 kWh and adds a rear-mounted motor for total output of 135kW and 307Nm.

The charging port is located on the front passenger side of the vehicle.

With a DC charger, charging from 10-80 per cent at a rate of up to 70kW takes between 25 and 40 minutes.

With a three-phase 11 kW charger, 10-100 per cent takes about 5.5 hours — single phase takes nine hours.

WLTP driving range is listed at 344km and 395km respectively. The Queensland-only 2WD Ultra is good for 426km.

Vehicle to Load (VTL) is available in both variants.

The compact size of the e Vitara and the EV agility makes it an excellent urban vehicle.

The Ultra AWD that we tested came with a 10-way adjustable driver’s seat which allowed us to settle into a comfortable driving position.

Visibility is good with a large windscreen, side and rear windows, together with relatively thin A-pillars.

GAC Emzoom: Room for some emzooment

The gear selector is a rotary and push-down set-up with a park button above it.

There are also physical buttons to adjust brake regeneration, hill descent, parking brake and auto hold.

Zero to 100km/h takes 7.4 seconds for the AWD Ultra and 9.6 seconds in the FWD Motion.

Ride is relatively soft aimed at comfort rather than sportiness.

Despite the cladding, a decent 180mm ground clearance and the eAxle, the e Vitara is only suited to modest off-road conditions.

Those looking for serious bush bashing will be aware that a Jimny EV is under development and will be hoping that it comes here.

What we like?

Brown upholstery
New tech features
More interior space
Bolder more adventurous styling
No nagging camera pointing at the driver’s face

What we don’t like?

4-star safety rating
No front centre airbag
Annoying ‘hidden’ rear door handles
Low-res infotainment screen
No spare wheel

The bottom line?

The compact EV SUV range is growing rapidly, with most models coming from Chin and very competitively priced.

This is Suzuki’s biggest challenge because the e Vitara’s driveaway prices run from $48,990 for the 2WD Motion through to $58,990 for the AWD Ultra.

These prices drop by $2000 with limited time cashback offers.

Even with these discounts e Vitara sits at the top end of the compact SUV EV category and will struggle to compete against Chinese rivals such as the BYD Atto, Jaecoo J5 and GWM Ora — which are more than $10K cheaper.

The fact that Suzuki is a respected and trusted Japanese brand will no doubt attract buyers, provided they aren’t deterred by the fact that it is manufactured in India.

It’s a capable and comfortable vehicle aimed mostly at urban conditions, with a fair balance between physical and touchscreen controls that will satisfy both tech-savvy and conventional drivers.