Suzuki e-Vitara Review | The Small Electric SUV That Can Go Off-Road!
If you’re looking for a compact SUV off-roader, no one quite does it like Suzuki. And the Vitara name is extremely wellnown. Starting life in 1988, the Suzuki Vitara was a compact but rugged SUV and it started the SUV craze before it was even a craze. But the one thing the Vitara has always done well is it’s always been that off-roader. It’s never lost that capability. And as time went on, they got a little bit better at being a family car as well as being that off-roader, having that split personality. But this is the latest generation of the Suzuki Vitara. And it’s possibly the most important yet because, of course, now the Vitara is fully electric. This is the Evitara. And in today’s video, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know and what my thoughts about it are. So, if that sounds good, then please keep watching. And if you like new car reviews and car content, then you’re in the right place. Go ahead and hit the subscribe button. Okay, first of all, why don’t we hit the road? The Evitara comes with the option of two batteries. There’s a 49 kWh pack or a larger 61 kWh version, and they both actually use BYD’s blade battery technology. That’s good news because BYD’s batteries are well known for being safe, durable, and efficient. In real world, the smaller battery will give you around 210 miles, and then you have the larger one, which stretches that to about 265. Go for the All Grip E four-wheel drive version, and you’ll see slightly less, roughly 245 mi, but of course, you’ll gain a bit of traction when the weather turns typically British. Charging is where things are a little modest. So, the Evitara can fast charge up to 70 kW, which means that a top up from 10 to 80% takes about 45 minutes. That’s not quite as quick as some of its rivals, but Suzuki says that that could improve over time with software updates. And because the car uses BYD’s battery technology, that claim actually sounds pretty realistic. Now, as for power, the 61 kWh frontwheel drive model produces 172 horsepower, while the All Grip E4-wheel drive version bumps that up slightly to 181 horsepower, and it adds a chunk more torque. That’s pulling power. Basically, jumping from 189 new m to 307 new m to 62 mph takes 7.4 seconds, which is perfectly brisk for something wearing a Suzuki badge. There are actually very few people out there who have driven the Evitara quite as much as I have because I got a chance to drive this as a pre-production car at Milbrook quite a few months ago and then again it arrived recently at John Banks Group. So I had a chance to take it out for a spin around my local Suffukk roads and I put together a video which tells you the key stats and figures for that car. So if you want to see that I’ll pop it somewhere up on the screen. But today is a bit more of a review. I’ve driven a lot of compact electric vehicles recently. So, how does this compare to the competition? That’s what we’re going to dive into a bit more in today’s video. And let’s start with the styling. And I think it’s pretty handsome in the way that it looks. It’s not particularly exciting or daring, but that’s not what Suzuki were going for. They wanted a car which was familiar to their customers. So, it looked like a Vara. And this very much looks like a Vitara just in a latest generation. So, you have this blanked off grill, which is of course key to it being an electric vehicle, but you have this nice black bar around the front with the Suzuki badge, and you have these really nice 3D lights. These are some of my favorite elements of this car. So, 3D at the front, you’ve got that three lighting signature, and that’s also mirrored around the back as well, but they sit a bit more prominent, and I really like that. It does have a hint to its off-road capabilities with those rugged kind of bumpers around the front, around the wheel arches. This is actually made of recycled plant matter, I believe, as well. Maybe not recycled, but it is recyclable. And it comes in a few different color combinations. They’re not particularly exciting. There’s a red, there’s this green, a silver, a black, and you can also go for a black roof as well. Now, that’s the most expensive option. If you was to go for something like this green with a black roof, that’s going to cost you £950. But with the Suzuki Evitara, even if you go for the topsp spec Ultra with the four-wheel drive and with the most expensive paint option, with the new Suzuki electric vehicle grant, it still sits just below £35,000. So that’s very competitive. And also where you go for the finance packages, they’re even more competitive. So it’s around 2.9% currently. I’m filming in October 2025, and that is one of the best on the market. Meaning with £55,000 down, you can get the bigger battery car at the slightly lower spec motion, but you can get that for £300 a month, which is really good. And you get an OMI home charger as well. And I love the guys at OMI. They’re brilliant. So, it’s a fantastic option if you’re looking at getting into an electric vehicle. So, I really like the styling on the exterior. It does have that kind of cutesy, lovable stance that you certainly don’t get from something like a Leap Motor B10, which was, well, let’s face it, just a bit forgettable. But what’s the interior like? What I will start by saying is this isn’t my favorite interior trim of this vehicle. My favorite is the tan, which you can get on some of the higher spec vehicles, and I think that just elevates this car and makes it a bit more interesting. The black, however, is very palatable. And in this entry-level motion car, it still feels very good quality. So you have fabric seats in the motion and these feel nice and bolstered and I think they’ll be reasonably hardwearing. Although if you want something which is going to last a little bit longer and be a bit more practical then you may want to go for the higher spec car which gets a synthetic leather. You have a nice lever wrapped armrest with a little bit of storage and you have this floating center console. You’ve got storage underneath with some USB and USBC charging and you have cup holders up front and some wireless charging in front. Once again, if you go for the higher spec vehicle, I do think that these are slightly in an awkward position because if you want to have your phone in the wireless charging pad, but also have two cups in the cup holders, they can get in the way a little bit. But other than that, I think it’s a very nice layout. You have your gear selector right here in the center, and that’s exactly where it feels like it should be. So, there’s nothing behind the steering wheel like in other vehicles. And this is my preference. You also have some nice physical buttons here. a physical button for your drive mode and also a physical button for your regenerative braking. Now your regenerative braking very interestingly can be customized within the screen but you can save your favorite setting. You hit the memory button and then it will remember which is your favorite setting and then to activate it you just have to press the button which actually I think is quite an intuitive way of doing it. You also have your handbrake in the center here as well. It will release automatically, but if you’re not wearing a seat belt, sometimes you have to release it manually, but also that does come on automatically unlike some of the Stellantis products. So, I far prefer an automatic handbrake. The quality in here is very good. So, everything feels very, very solid. There’s nothing rattly in this vehicle. You have a mixture of some physical buttons along here. You have the temperature and also you have your fan speed and then you have a physical volume button here as well. Then everything else is in the central touchcreen. Whilst I don’t think this is too bad, I like the fact that you have the shortcuts, there are some things that I just wish were on physical buttons and that’s things like your heated seats. To get to your heated seats, you have to go to climate and then you have to press heated seat and then you have to press which of the seats to heat and as you can see that’s quite a long process. So that’s a bit of a shame but that really is a very small complaint. Everything else feels very tactile. You’ve got proper buttons on the steering wheel for your climate control. You’ve also got proper lighting controls on the stalks and also you’ve got your window wipers on the stalks as well. So everything is pretty much where you think it will be bar a few functions which are buried in the touchscreen. Right now I think we need to put this car through its paces where it says that it shines and that’s on the off-road course. But first I need to swap into an all-wheel drive. If you go for the allgrip E model, it adds an extra layer of confidence, especially in winter. Suzuki system can actually instantly shuffle power between the front and rear wheels when it senses slip, and it even has snow and trail modes for added grip. It’s not pretending to be a Land Rover, but it is good to know that if things get slippery, it’s got your back. One of the standout features of this Evitara is the allgrip four-wheel drive system. Essentially, instead of a single motor driving the front wheels, you get a second motor powering the rear axle, too. So, when the car senses the front wheel slipping, say on wet leaves or muddy farm access lane, it can actually channel torque to the back and keep you moving with confidence. In the bigger 61 kWh version, the power jumps to around 181 brake horsepower, a torque to 307 newm, giving you a reasonably brisk time of naugh to 62 in 7.4 4 seconds. So, how capable is it when the tarmac ends? It’s pretty good, but with caveats. The Evitara in all grip E mode gives you extra reassurance. In slippery conditions, you feel the grip transfers smoothly. The system holds its composure and gives you a bit more margin for error. However, for all its four-wheel drive capability, this isn’t a Land Rover substitute. Ground clearance is moderate. The tires and suspension are still set up for comfort and efficiency rather than rock crawling duty. In short, if your idea of off-road is a muddy field after the pub or scrub tracks in winter, the Evitara orgrip E will handle those with less stress than the front-wheel drive version. Finally, and for context, let’s remember, four-wheel drive electric SUVs in this smaller size bracket are definitely still fairly rare. The bigger EVs like the Kia EV9 or the EX90 offer all-wheel drive versions, but amongst the small or compact EVs, the standard for most is still frontwheel drive or rear wheel drive. And that’s what makes the Evitara’s Allgrip E system a stronger point in its favor. Now, when it comes to rear interior space, this is where you’re going to see a big difference compared to something like a Kia EV3. There is much more space in a Kia EV3, but it does have some redeeming qualities because if you compare this to the Jeep Avenger or the Fiat 600E, this car does actually have a pull down armrest with two cup holders and through loading. Plus, on top of those cars, you also get storage in the doors. So, when it comes to how comfortable your passengers are, it is much better in the back of this car compared to those competitors. You also have USB and USBC charging and it feels comfortable enough. However, headroom is a little bit tight. So, if you’re tall, you may find it quite uncomfortable in the back. But how often the average Evitara driver will be carrying tall passengers in the back. I don’t think that’s exactly going to be very often, but one of the features that this car does have is the sliding rear bench. though you can 60/40 split it and you can slide the seats forward, meaning if you have smaller people sitting in the back, you can get extra boot space. But if you’ve got taller people, you can slide it all the way back and then you have a nice amount of leg room. It isn’t the biggest in the back of this car and with the black headlining and no sunroof, it does feel a little bit dark in this motion trim, but actually I think if you’re not carrying people in the back very often, it’s not going to be a problem. So, a sliding rear bench is definitely helpful, but there isn’t the most competitive amount of space in the rear. It definitely felt bigger in the back of the BYD at 2. But what about boot space? Have they allowed for more room there? Well, unfortunately, it’s a similar story. So, inside here, you get just over 300 L. You have a nice wide opening, but it is a little bit higher than some of the competition, which means if you have poor mobility, that’s definitely something you need to pay attention to. In here, you have a bit of underfloor storage where you can pop away your charging cables. You have a nice sturdy parcel shelf. None of that fancy retractable stuff though, and you do have a couple of hooks, but it doesn’t go above and beyond in the boot. In fact, it feels a little bit kind of basic in there. You do have that sliding rear bench which means that you can add extra storage in the boot if you haven’t got tall people sitting in the rear at the same time. I think when it comes to this car you need to look at it as a car for a couple or a very small family. I don’t think this is going to accommodate a large family but it is comfortable enough and it will be more than enough for a shopping or for a small weekend away. So, when it comes to rear space and boot space, it is a little bit behind the competition, and it’s also just trailing behind very slightly when it comes to that battery range and charging, which is a shame. So, you may be wondering, other than the four-wheel drive system, why would you go for the Suzuki Evitara? Well, for one, if you don’t need to worry about how fast you can top up on the go if you’re just charging at home, then I think that 200 mi is a really usable range. You’ve also got that standard battery tech which is from BYD which is pretty reliable. And then you also have a standard heat pump which means this is probably going to still be pretty efficient even when it comes to the colder winter months. But then there’s the warranty and also you have the customer service. This is something which Suzuki really pride themselves on. So as standard this car comes with a 3-year 60,000 mi warranty which you may think that doesn’t sound great but that’s just their standard warranty. That’s if you never had it serviced again at a Suzuki dealer. If you do have it serviced at a Suzuki dealer, then actually top it up to a 100,000 miles from the third year and then up to 10 years. So with this car, you can get 10 years warranty which is also transferable as well if you sell the car or if you buy it secondhand. And then you also have the customer service which is fantastic from Suzuki. They are regularly winning rewards for their customer service as being one of the best brands to deal with. So actually, if you’re not too fussed about boot space and rear space, and if you think that 200 mi is more than enough for your needs, then I think that this could be a really affordable, but key a really reliable option. Now, I say that, but of course, this is a new product. We haven’t sold a product from India before within the UK or at least not recently. So, it may be a little bit different, but Suzuki absolutely promise us that they’ve worked super hard on having the same quality in this vehicle as they have throughout the rest of their range. And if that is true, then this car can be proven to be as reliable. It seems like a great option. But let me know, would you be willing to take a chance on the Suzuki Evitara? Let me know your thoughts and feelings down below. I really hope you have enjoyed this video. If you have, go ahead and give it a big thumbs up. And if you want to see more, then you know what to do. Go ahead and hit the subscribe button. Until next time, guys. See you later. [Music] [Music]
Suzuki might be a little late to the EV party — but they’ve finally arrived, and they’ve brought something refreshingly different.
This is the Suzuki e-Vitara, the brand’s first fully electric SUV, and it’s aiming to combine the Vitara’s tough, go-anywhere DNA with zero-emission driving. In this review, I take a detailed look at the 61 kWh Motion trim, exploring its design, tech, practicality, and what it’s like to drive both on and off the road.
We’ll cover:
Real-world range and charging speeds
How the ALLGRIP-e four-wheel-drive system actually performs
Interior comfort, space, and usability
The driving experience
The e-Vitara might not be the fastest-charging or flashiest EV out there, but it brings something few others do — proper small-SUV character, everyday practicality, and genuine all-weather confidence.
👉 Subscribe for more reviews, and let me know in the comments — is this the electric small SUV the UK’s been waiting for?
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