There’s a technical tie-up going on between Japanese automakers Suzuki and Toyota right now, although here we’re not seeing the fruits of those labours.
Principally, that’s because Toyota – by far the bigger partner in this relationship – has historically taken the lead in this automotive dance and provided its vehicles to Suzuki for rebadging: witness the RAV4 becoming the Across, and the Corolla morphing into the Swace.
However, we get neither of those two repurposed Toyotas from Suzuki Australia. But this car, Suzuki’s first-ever mass-produced electric vehicle (EV), is the new e-Vitara. And this time around, Toyota will be borrowing Suzuki’s work to create the Urban Cruiser from the same basic building blocks.
Nothing will be straightforward for the Suzuki e-Vitara, though, because there’s a heck of a lot of choice in this compact, affordable electric SUV sector. Not only from a whole raft of Chinese EVs from brands you may or may not have heard of, but also from established legacy manufacturers such as Kia with the EV3, Volvo with its EX30, and Skoda’s brilliant Elroq, among others.
We got our first taste of the e-Vitara in European spec at the UK launch ahead of its Australian release in the first quarter of 2026, so how excited should we be for the new Suzuki EV’s arrival here early next year?
How much does the Suzuki e-Vitara cost?
Prices and specifications for this market are yet to be determined, although the Suzuki e-Vitara will need to be keenly positioned to end up as a success.
This is because, if we take just three of those rivals we’ve mentioned above, then they’re all longer-range than the Suzuki, they offer much faster DC charging rates, they typically all have larger boots, and they have a whole load more power and torque.
A Kia EV3, for instance, provides anything between 436 and 604km of range, with a 150kW/283Nm powertrain, for $47,600-$63,900 before on-roads. The Volvo EX30 runs from $53,990 to $71,290 and has 460-480 km of range, with power of 200kW and torque at 343Nm. The magnificent Skoda Elroq will give you a thumping great 210kW/545Nm rear-mounted motor, much more cabin space and 530km of range, all for anything between $54,990-$64,990.
All three of these also rapid-charge at anything between 100 and 175kW DC, putting the e-Vitara’s measly 70kW in the shade.
We’d therefore hope the Suzuki is going to at least undercut the Kia, and by a considerable amount, to make any sense alongside these advanced rivals.
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What is the Suzuki e-Vitara like on the inside?
Fair play to Suzuki, which has done its best to glam up the interior of the e-Vitara. Everything feels solidly put-together and there are attempts at bringing different textures to the fore, such as the patterned door cards and the ever-so-slightly soft-touch fascia that surrounds the air vents.
However, start prodding and poking around, and some of the plastics don’t feel that robust. You won’t have to go searching hard for these, either, as the dash-top and upper sections of the doors are prime culprits.
It’s also rather dour inside, unless you go for a green or silver car in top specification, in which you get the tan interior to enliven things.
This does lift the black-on-black-on-very-dark-grey ambience of the e-Vitara’s cabin, but it’s not full tan leather. Instead, it’s just a strip of the colour that runs from door-to-door across the middle of the dash, and which is then repeated on the central armrest and outer sections of the seats.
The company also doesn’t seem to have got the memo, which the rest of the automotive industry has, about piano-black trim. There’s acres of this faddish stuff inside the Suzuki EV, which shows up every fingerprint put on it and which also ages badly.
In one AWD car we tested, which was almost brand spanking new, the transmission tunnel was already showing unsightly scratches and marks near the switchgear, so what it’ll look like after three years and 50,000km of hard usage is anyone’s guess.
We don’t want to sound like we have a downer on what is an acceptable interior, but there are more gripes about the Suzuki e-Vitara’s cabin. Such as the technology. This is presented on two screens in one housing, comprising a 10.1-inch central touchscreen and a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster.
Neither of them is graphically poor, but they’re housed in one wide-arching block of trim – and because they’re at different heights, there’s a thick band of unattractive black plastic above the cluster.
And despite the retention of some physical switchgear, there’s still too much reliance on the infotainment to do various simple tasks. If you want to turn off lane keep assist and the annoying bong that accompanies you drifting over speed limits, it’s an annoying process that will take you 12 screen presses and about 25 seconds at its fastest.
Switching on the heated seats is even more of a faff, requiring five taps of the display and waiting for pointless animations of seats swivelling about on the screen, when there are vast plains of featureless piano-black plastic on that central tunnel that could house two heated seat buttons which you’d press once, without ever taking your eyes off the road ahead.
Let’s bolster the e-Vitara’s case, then, by saying passenger space in the back is decent. Neither headroom nor legroom are tremendous, but they’re acceptable enough for average-height passengers, while the rear row of seats split/folds 40:20:40, while the bench can be slid forwards and backwards on a 60:40 basis to increase passenger room or ramp up cargo capacity as required.
That’s good news because the boot of the Suzuki is nothing special. With the rear row of chairs pushed fully back, you get just 244 litres in the front-wheel-drive e-Vitara, and a meagre 238L in the AWD dual-motor variant.
Slide them forward and things improve marginally, to 310 and 306L respectively – but most rivals go comfortably beyond 400L in this discipline these days. There’s also no front storage area under the e-Vitara’s bonnet at all.
| Dimensions | Suzuki e-Vitara FWD |
|---|---|
| Length | 4275mm |
| Width | 1800mm |
| Height | 1635mm |
| Wheelbase | 2700mm |
| Cargo capacity | 244-310L (behind rear seats) |
What’s under the bonnet?
When it comes to powertrains, assuming we follow other global markets, there are three main flavours of the e-Vitara, based on two battery packs and two driven-wheels options.
| Specifications | Suzuki e-Vitara 61kWh FWD |
|---|---|
| Drivetrain | Single-motor electric |
| Battery | 61kWh li-ion (net) |
| Power | 128kW |
| Torque | 193Nm |
| Drive type | Front-wheel drive |
| Weight | 1702-1799kg |
| 0-100km/h (claimed) | 8.7 seconds |
| Energy consumption (claimed) | 14.3kWh/100km |
| Energy consumption (as tested) | 21.4kWh/100km |
| Claimed range | 426km |
| Max AC charge rate | 11kW |
| Max DC charge rate | 70kW |
The entry point will be a front-drive car with the smaller 49kWh (usable) battery pack. Power from this one is a modest 106kW, with an equally modest 193Nm of torque to back it up, allowing for a claimed 9.6-second 0-100km/h run and a theoretical max range of 344km.
Sticking with two-wheel drive, the longest-legged e-Vitara is fitted with a 61kWh battery. The torque’s the same as the base model, but power climbs to 128kW, which lowers the official 0-100km/h time to 8.7 seconds and ups the range claim to 426km.
Finally, there’s the dual-motor Allgrip-e, which is all-wheel drive. It uses the same battery and 128kW/193Nm front motor as the long-range e-Vitara, but adds another rear-mounted 48kW propulsion unit.
Peak power is pegged to 135kW, although the resulting 307Nm overall torque figure is most welcome.
The Suzuki e-Vitara Allgrip-e will do 0-100km/h in a claimed 7.4 seconds, but the payoff for the extra traction and speed is that the range falls back to 395km.
It’s the somewhat low maximum DC fast-charging rate of 70kW of the e-Vitara which bothers us here. That’s way off the pace for the modern EV era.
In its defence, Suzuki claims a 10-80 per cent charge of even the bigger battery will take just 45 minutes at its swiftest, while the e-Vitara can avail itself of 11kW AC charging on a three-phase connection.
How does the Suzuki e-Vitara drive?
The Suzuki e-Vitara is okay to drive, but it’s not particularly brilliant at any one discipline – and there are two key things which bug us, too.
As you’d expect from the torque figures of less than 200Nm, in a vehicle weighing at least 1.7 tonnes the performance is leisurely by EV standards. The e-Vitara is smooth enough to pick up speed, and its adjustable regenerative braking system is good, even if there’s no one-pedal driving capability despite how you tweak it.
But this is not a quick car. Stepping up to the Allgrip-e does help somewhat with the punchiness, though.
In terms of the ride, handling and rolling refinement, it’s a mixed bag.
The Suzuki grips well and doesn’t display appreciably excessive pitch, roll or dive, but light and feel-free steering in an inert chassis serve to rob the driver of any joy while hustling the e-Vitara along.
Off-road, the AWD model performs admirably enough for something without proper locking diffs and so on, but we’d temper that assessment by confessing the rough-terrain route we were presented with by Suzuki was hardly what you’d called challenging – it was basically a few ruts, sharp descents and a bit of mud, so the e-Vitara is not the sort of thing in which you want to be tackling the Canning Stock Route.
Of more concern was how uncomfortable the ride could be at times, along with excessive wind and tyre noise on poorer surfaces. On the latter score, a constant ruffling from the B-pillar was audible at any speed beyond about 70km/h, while chatter from the rubber becomes vaguely bothersome at 100km/h.
But it’s the primary ride that needs serious rejigging before the e-Vitara arrives in Australia, we feel. On smoother surfaces, the Suzuki performs okay. The minute it encounters any significant lumps and bumps in the tarmac, however, the control goes all to pot – leaving the car bouncing up and down in the wake of big compressions to the suspension.
It’s not a firm and gritty ride-comfort problem. It’s more a feeling of the car being over-sprung but under-damped. And it’s not particularly pleasant, sadly.
On top of that is markedly poor electrical efficiency. We drove the long-range model on road, in cool but not freezing temperatures, and in a fairly sedate manner for about 100km, and it returned an indicated energy consumption of 21.4kWh/100km – which is tragic for a low-power, single-motor EV like this.
We want to see much better from it when we test it on home turf, that’s for sure.
What do you get?
One area where the Suzuki e-Vitara ought to hit hard is with standard specifications. We’re not sure what they’ll be called here in Australia as yet (presumably they will follow the Pure and GLX structure of the Swift), but elsewhere there are two trims known as Motion and Ultra.
Australian trim equipment levels remain TBC, but we’d expect all of these items below to be standard-fit in even the base car tested here.
2026 Suzuki e-Vitara equipment highlights:
- 18-inch alloy wheels
- Integrated display system (10.25-inch cluster and 10.1-inch infotainment)
- Rear privacy glass
- Reversing camera
- Front and rear parking sensors
- LED headlights and daytime running lights
- Satellite navigation
- Keyless entry and start
- Heated front seats and steering wheel (61kWh models only)
- Rear-seat slide and recline functionality
A top-spec e-Vitara ought to add 19-inch alloys, front fog lamps, a panoramic sunroof, wireless smartphone charging, dual-zone climate control, half-synthetic leather upholstery, a power-adjustable driver’s seat, and an Infinity premium audio system with subwoofer, plus additional safety kit.
Is the Suzuki e-Vitara safe?
ANCAP hasn’t got a hold of the e-Vitara yet, but Euro NCAP has and the Suzuki bagged a four-star overall rating, scoring 77, 85, 79 and 72 per cent for the adult occupant, child occupant, vulnerable road users, and safety assist parameters accordingly.
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It’s a surprisingly low score, given the regular model comes with Suzuki’s Dual Sensor Brake Support kit, as
well as lane keep assist and lane departure warning, traffic sign recognition, blind spot monitor, and rear cross-traffic alert as standard.
A top-grade car should be fitted with adaptive high-beam headlights and a 360-degree camera system, too.
How much does the Suzuki e-Vitara cost to run?
As it’s Suzuki’s first EV, we wait to see what aftersales policy the company will adopt here for the e-Vitara. The traditional Australian level of Suzuki cover is a five-year, unlimited-distance warranty with roadside assistance of the same timeframe, provided you service the car on schedule at a Suzuki dealer.
But whether the e-Vitara needs the same annual, or 15,000km (whichever comes sooner), maintenance schedule as its combustion-powered relations remains to be seen, as does the cost of any fixed-price servicing for the EV either.
Interestingly, in other territories, Suzuki will provide up to 10 years and 160,000km of complete vehicle and battery warranty, on a service-activated basis. Otherwise, the standard high-voltage battery warranty is the usual eight years of cover.
CarExpert’s Take on the Suzuki e-Vitara
It’s a solid first electric effort, the Suzuki e-Vitara, but our worry is that it’s not exactly a new EV which properly shakes up its particular market sector.
It has the advantage of being one of the few vehicles of this sort of size, facility and price range that provides an AWD option, which might give it the edge for adventurous types, or those living in more remote areas. And it ought to be sold at a competitive price with loads of kit for your money, backed by a potential 10-year warranty.
But in terms of its driving experience, its styling, its interior finishing, its technological interface in the cabin, and the electric range, real-world efficiency and charging speeds it offers, it feels like the e-Vitara has launched in about the middle of the class from the off – instead of pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.
If you’ve always loved Suzukis and you really want an electric SUV with an ‘S’ badge on its nose, you’ll probably like the e-Vitara a lot. For everyone else, there are better existing options out there including Kia’s excellent EV3.
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