Suzuki eVitara review

First impressions are positive. The steering has a good weight to it, the high driving position offers a commanding view over the road, and the accelerator and brakes are nicely progressive. It’s an easy car to operate.

Just not always a comfortable one to ride in. We get it’s intentionally softly sprung, but on a British B-road it bounces around with glee, lacking some of the body control of rivals around corners. Once on the motorway it never really settles down either, with lots of wind noise.

And another thing. Three different levels of brake regeneration are available, and while you activate it using a button on the centre console, you have to change the level – low, medium, high – through the touchscreen. Huh?

Weird. Is it at all… fun?

Sporty is not the eVitara’s forte. Zero to 62mph takes 9.6 seconds in the 49kWh/142bhp version, 8.7 seconds in the 61kWh/172bhp (2WD) variant, and 7.4 seconds in the 61kWh/181bhp (4WD) version.

But that’s perfectly fine for an everyday runabout. It feels as brisk as you’d expect when you put your foot down, and doesn’t run out of breath as your speed rises. You do get a choice of driving modes (Eco, Normal, Sport, Snow in two-wheel drive versions; Eco, Normal, Sport and Trail in all-wheel drive variants), though on the road the only difference we really noticed was the throttle responsiveness.

Where the eVitara perhaps shines best is off-road. It gets Suzuki’s Allgrip-e 4WD system, with independent motors at the front and rear (though the back one only adds 64bhp), plus the previously mentioned Trail mode, which monitors slip and manages power distribution between all four wheels, as well as hill descent control. We had a brief go on a short off-road route and it confidently scrabbled up and down various hills and muddy slalom courses even on its standard road tyres.

And anyway, if you’re after a performance EV, you’re looking at the wrong car. We’d recommend looking at the Skoda Elroq vRS or dual-motor Volvo EX30. Which will cost you several thousand pounds more.

Fair point. What about efficiency?

Suzuki claims 4.2 miles per kWh in the entry version, 4.1mpkWh in the bigger batteried version, and 3.7mpkWh in the 4WD variant. We spent most of our time in the middle version, averaging 3.5mpkWh for a return of 214 miles.

That’s versus a claimed figure of 264 miles. All versions get a heat pump as standard, but as ever expect that to fall considerably in winter.

On a DC rapid charger you’re looking at 10-80 per cent recharge time of 45 mins. Most of its rivals will manage half that. That’s largely down to a maximum charging speed of 70kW – Suzuki says that the capability is there to support faster charging, but has limited it at this to extend the life of the battery. 

On your average 7kW home wall box you’re looking at six and a half hours for the smaller battery, and nine hours for the bigger battery.