Suzuki e-Vitara (2025 – ) review

This is an early drive of the e Vitara and, at the time of writing, we don’t actually know the pricing. But everything points to Suzuki wanting all e Vitara models to duck the now-critical £40,000 threshold, above which electric cars are now also hit by the ‘premium’ VED/’road tax’ surcharge for the first five years of ownership, which is an important consideration for ongoing ownership costs. Beyond that it’s the usual story that if you can charge it at home and on cheap off-peak electricity you’ll save a bundle in running costs, while company car drivers with an eye on their Benefit In Kind tax bill can still save over a hybrid or conventionally powered car. Relatively small and light and with a sensibly sized battery the e Vitara should be cheaper to run than bigger, more powerful rivals.

Consider this a holding score for the fact we drove the e Vitara ahead of its launch, so it’s too early to say whether customer cars will be reliable. We’d take some reassurance for the fact it’s built in partnership with Toyota and both brands have a solid reputation for dependable engineering, not to mention there’s less to go wrong with electric cars anyway. Like Toyota, Suzuki will extend the standard three-year warranty to up to 10 years if you commit to having it serviced at authorised dealers, which sounds a reasonable quid pro quo.

We haven’t driven the e Vitara on the public road yet, so we’ll have to see how the many and various safety systems cope with real world conditions. You’re certainly not left wanting, though, with all the expected lane-keeping, emergency braking and suchlike while (yay!) genuinely useful systems like blind spot warnings are standard where others make you pay more. We also like the fact Suzuki has stuck with physical controls so you can operate basic functions like heating and ventilation with your eyes on the road rather than stabbing away at a big screen as many rivals force you to do.

The test track we drove the e Vitara on included all the lumps, bumps, potholes, speed humps and dodgy surfaces you’ll encounter on any British road, so even though we’re yet to drive it ‘in the wild’ we got a pretty good sense of how it will handle. It sounds damning with faint praise to say it does so acceptably, but in an age where some manufacturers are rushing their products to market without the same level of testing that’s actually a tick in its favour. True, it’s on the soft and wallowy side but that’s absolutely fine for the type of use it will get and, bar a bit of noise from wind and rougher surfaces, it’s as refined as any electric car. It’s also impressively spacious inside for what presents as an otherwise compact vehicle, with lots of space in the back and a sliding rear bench so you can free up more capacity if needed, though that obviously comes at the expense of legroom. That flexibility will be a bonus for family users, ditto the long rear doors that will make lifting kids into childseats a cinch.

We like Suzuki’s simple two-step approach to trim levels, the standard Motion version including navigation, a range improving heat pump, the sliding/reclining rear seats, all the safety systems, parking sensors, reversing camera and (on models with the bigger battery) heating for the steering wheel and front seats. The fancier Ultra spec adds power adjustment for the seats and a snazzier two-tone interior with tan inserts if you go for the green or silver paint options. Which is welcome, given without it the interior is a little sombre and cheap looking in the standard all-black. In terms of exterior paint anything but white is a cost option. Lovers of the giant screens seen in many rivals may consider the smaller one set into the e Vitara’s dash a little on the trad side but we actually preferred it for that and the physical switches beneath, the menus and systems powering it and the digital instruments seemingly logical and easy to use.

The e Vitara is available in three battery and motor combinations, none liable blow your socks off in raw performance terms but responsive enough at the speeds that matter in the real world. Take your pick from the smaller battery with the single motor or the bigger one with the option of front- or all-wheel drive. Big battery and single motor is the best combination for range, which is a claimed 267 miles by official stats. We drove this and the ALLGRIP-e version, the latter repurposing Suzuki’s traditional branding for the all-wheel drive models that have always been popular with drivers who need to get about in all weathers. The extra weight of the ALLGRIP-e actually helps settle the car and make it feel a bit more composed in the corners, and it gets off the line a lot quicker as well. You lose a bit of range in the process, so prioritise accordingly. Regenerative braking where you can put energy back into the battery when slowing down can be controlled by a button by the gear selector and from three levels buried in the menus, though even the hardest of these won’t bring the car to a complete halt for the ‘one-pedal driving’ many EV owners appreciate.