Will Suzuki's hybrid-ready Grand Vitara come to Australia to rival the Mitsubishi ASX, Kia Seltos, Haval Jolion and MG ZS small SUVs?

When will Australian small SUV buyers seeking value finally see the Suzuki Grand Vitara?

The stylish and potentially inexpensive alternative to the Mitsubishi ASX, Kia Seltos and MG ZS has been on the local radar since launching in India two years ago. Strong demand, coupled with insufficient production capacity, has kept the newcomer from our shores.

This may change in the near future, with Suzuki Australia General Manager, Michael Pachota, reiterating his desire to broaden the range of SUVs and crossovers the Japanese brand offers in this market - particularly ones with electrification availability.

“Grand Vitara is available in some countries with the two variants of the 1.5-litre hybrid engine,” he said. “But are we planning to bring it to Australia? Not at this stage."

"But it’s always up for consideration. I always have my hand up very high for new product. If there’s an opportunity to introduce something new to the range, I’d love to improve our portfolio.”

The Grand Vitara is developed by Suzuki but built in India by Toyota (which also sells a variation of it as the Urban Cruiser Hyryder). Its comparative lower-priced manufacturing source holds strong appeal for Pachota, especially as the ageing and closely-related Vitara as well as the even-older S-Cross are both expensively imported over from Europe, limiting their ability to perform against cheaper rivals like the Haval Jolion, Kia Seltos and MG ZS.

“I’m always looking to try and get the better deal, so to speak,” he admitted. “And that being the case, bringing vehicles from Europe… is a difficult thing for us in terms of product for Australia, especially in regards to being competitively priced and obviously maintaining profit for our dealers and for ourselves as well.

“Ideally, if I brought cars in from India – which build quality is the same if not better – it would be more beneficial for the Australian market and for us.”

Another scenario that might boost the Grand Vitara’s chances for a local debut is Suzuki’s need to better meet next year’s New Vehicle Efficiency Standard (NVES) targets. With the slow-selling S-Cross powered by a comparatively high-carbon emitting turbo engine, the hybrid alternative from India might be just the ticket the brand needs.

“At this stage, we don’t have any plans to discontinue S-Cross,” Pachota said.

“But with NVES and the undertaking of bringing in a car from Europe – and we currently bring the Vitara as well as the S-Cross from Hungary – we have to review our product portfolio moving forward, to see what we should be bringing in to Australia to meet the CO2 standards year-by-year… and then work out a timeline from that. We’re still in the process of (working that out)."

In late 2022, Pachota revealed to CarsGuide that while the Grand Vitara is intended as a global proposition, it would not be sold in markets that offered both the Vitara and S-Cross as well.

“It’s not a decision I can make on that product,” he said. “It is a decision based on the fact that Suzuki in Japan decides where that product will be distributed in that particular segment based on the arrangements we made with them in the past as to what products we will have in Australia.

“When we put our hands up for S-Cross and Vitara, we didn’t know there would be a model comparable within that segment, and that we wouldn’t get it because we put our hands up for the (other) two (instead).”

The Grand Vitara uses the Suzuki Global C-platform architecture, as per S-Cross and Vitara, along with the company’s long-lived 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine with mild-hybrid electrification driving the front wheels.

Toyota’s three-cylinder hybrid set-up, similar to that found in the popular Yaris Cross, is also available in higher-spec grades as well as all-wheel drive.

The Grand Vitara nameplate would not be new to Australians should it finally make it here.

From 1998 to the mid-2010s, it sequentially graced two body-on-frame replacements for the smaller – and ground-breaking – original Vitara series that debuted a decade earlier. It was offered with four-cylinder as well as V6 petrol-powered options, while the earlier iteration could also be had with a stretched version with three rows of seating known as the XL-7.