- Suzuki New Zealand is only offering the e Vitara here with a 61kWh battery, however a 49kWh battery is available globally.
- Suzuki says that market feedback suggests that customers prefer longer range EVs, so has avoided the shorter range model here.
- The 49kWh variant is offered in Australia, so could potentially come here if there is demand for it.
Suzuki New Zealand isn't convinced that a potentiall more affordable version of its first ever EV with a smaller battery would be a goer in this country, despite the e Vitara being the most expensive car the company sells here.
While Suzuki Australia's e Vitara line up consists of the a 49kWh 2WD variant and a 61kWh AWD variant, Suzuki New Zealand has indicated that the 49kWh model is not slated for immediate introduction into our market, instead going with a 2WD model with the larger 61kWh battery.
According to Suzuki New Zealand CEO Gary Collins this is because, historically, market feedback in New Zealand has suggested that shorter-range electric vehicles do not perform strongly, with consumers generally preferring models offering greater range, and that this preference influenced Suzuki NZ's current product mix.
"Our general feedback when we were investigating what we should sell was that most people were naturally moving up to the models that had the slightly higher range," said Collins at the recent launch of the e Vitara.
Collins went on to say that the "sudden tweak around fuel price increases" that has introduced interest from people who just want "the most affordable option, regardless of whether it actually ideally meets their motoring requirements" has created some distortion in the market around this, but ultimately he was happy with the model mix.
"We're pretty comfortable with the mix that we have. We've been working towards our market but we do have the ability to pull across with what we like."
However, Collins didn't entirely rule out the possibility of the shorter range EV making its way here if the is enough customer demand, however it wouldn't be as simple as "turning on the taps".
"Australia is selling the 49kWh model so potentially it's developed for our market, and potentially we could do that," he said. However, with an approximate eight-month lead time for the new e Vitara, it wouldn't happen overnight.
While the 61kW e Vitara offers up to 426km in its 2WD guise, Suzuki Australia lists the 49kWh 2WD model with a range of up to 344km, less even than the AWD model's range of up to 395kW.
It's currently not clear if the 49kWh version would be significantly cheaper than the 61kWh versions, as Suzuki Australia hasn't released pricing for its model line up yet, however the expectation is that the 49kWh model will open Suzuki Australia's e Vitara range at under AU$40,000 (NZ$47,800).