Suzuki E-Vitara vs Zeekr X

What's the difference?

The Suzuki e Vitara is a fun, if unusual little electric car, but it does come at a price premium over many of its rivals, which includes the likes of the Kia EV3 and Hyundai Kona.

It’s great to drive, has a versatile cabin, and has a familiar feel for anyone new to electric cars. However, with low driving range, slow charging, no vehicle-to-load or single-pedal driving and comparatively high service costs, it may be a tall order.

Some will prefer that it wears a Japanese badge on its nose compared to budget alternatives, but I’m not sure Suzuki will be selling these in the kinds of volumes it needs to at this price.

It's a good thing in a small package, this Zeekr X, and there are a lot of things I like about it. In fact, the only sticking point for me is the price. But that's all about perspective. If you see this as a newcomer Chinese brand, then yes, there are a lot of more affordable options out there. But if you see it as a premium player, it's really a more affordable version of a Volvo.

Note: The author, Andrew Chesterton, is a co-owner of Smart As Media, a content agency and media distribution service with a number of automotive brands among its clients. When producing content for CarsGuide, he does so in accordance with the CarsGuide Editorial Guidelines and Code of Ethics, and the views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author.

The e Vitara is an odd looking car, with a super upright front and rear combining with sharp motifs across its blocky body.

It’s a departure from anything Suzuki has done before, with only echoes of the current Vitara combustion SUV at the front.

It moves Suzuki into new styling territory with the contemporary angular design feeling more similar to the Kia EV3 rather than the more curvy, contemporary designs seen on some of its more affordable Chinese competition.

The interior updates bring Suzuki into the current decade, with more screens, better software, and a more swish design compared to the increasingly dated interiors of its combustion models.

It has a more conservative approach than some newer names to the Australian market, with comparatively tame screens, the existence of actual buttons for some climate functions, and familiar switchgear, like traditional indicator stalks and a rotary-style shifter.

In fact, the shifter and some of the other buttons seem to be shared components with Toyota, because they are the same as what you might find in the bZ4X, for better or worse.

The software is basic. It features a handful of screens with little depth to the info on offer. However, it is quick to respond, and the dashboard offers a degree of customisation in its layouts. 

Even if it’s not quite the stellar software offering that you might see in a Tesla, it’s the best software Suzuki has offered and it seems to just work without being distracting, so that’s something at least.

The visual changes aren’t massive. This AWD version welcomes a couple of new exterior colours, including the 'Matt Khaki Green' of our test car. It also gets the two-tone black roof and there are new 20-inch alloy designs.

Elsewhere, it's the futuristic-style of design we’re used to which differentiates the X from its Volvo EX30 twin under the skin.

Inside, this is a seriously well-equipped and polished-feeling small SUV, and — unlike some of the newcomer brands to Australia — it all feels very high quality and well put together. And that includes the material choices.

I don’t even hate the fact that most of the functions are controlled via this screen, thanks to the little shortcuts glued to the home screen. I do, however, hate the fact that there’s no easy way to change the wing mirrors or shortcuts for toning down some of the safety stuff.

That aside, though, it’s a nice and high-quality feeling space.

There’s major pros and cons for the e Vitara on the practicality front. In some ways it’s a smart and pragmatic cabin, in other ways it leaves a lot to be desired.

Up front the seats are an easy win. Nicely bolstered with good padding, they’re surprisingly comfortable on a long drive despite a high seat base and interesting material choices.

Ergonomically, I felt as though the seating position was a bit high. It feels like an ‘early’ EV in that sense, with the batteries clearly taking up floor space. For shorter people, this will be a good thing, with the car offering a commanding view of the road, but it doesn't feel quite right for me.

The cabin offers ease of access to all the key controls, with physical toggles for the climate unit and a dial for volume. There are some buttons on the steering wheel for adjusting the digital instruments and key cruise functions, but no paddle shifters for controlling regenerative braking.

The centre console is the biggest design blunder. The raised bridge piece is almost entirely gloss plastic, which is impossible to keep clean and will scratch over time. The controls are also chunky, taking up a lot of real estate in this essential location. They could easily have been compressed down to a smaller area with more storage on offer instead.

The padded armrest is too low and too far back. It could have had adjustable height and reach where it sits, and could have offered more storage underneath as well.

To the e Vitara’s credit, there’s a set of two very nice cupholders up front, but using them with a bottle will block access to the physical climate controls and limit access to the wireless charger.

There’s also a tray beneath that houses the 12v, USB-A and USB-C ports, but it’s a bit too height-limited for larger items like handbags. It's finished in a scratchy plastic so loose objects slide around. There are large bottle holders with dividers in each of the front doors.

The rear seat continues with the nice seat trim and offers quite an impressive amount of legroom in its default position. The floor is flat, too, so the centre position is useful enough in terms of space to put your feet. Each door has a bottle holder and there’s a pocket on the back of the passenger seat. The centre seat folds down to make for a padded armrest with two cupholders.

However, there are no power outlets for rear passengers, nor are there adjustable air vents. The headliner and window tint back there is also dark, making the space feel claustrophobic, and the high seat bases combine with a tight roofline (blame the sunroof) to make for a space I only just fit into, despite ample leg room. 

The boot also feels small, but the e Vitara has a trick up its sleeve. With just 238 litres in its default configuration, it’s a small but oblong cargo area, but it swallowed our small and large CarsGuide travel cases. The second seating row is on rails and can move forward to nearly double the available volume. In this position, which would only leave enough space for small children or pets, the boot can absorb the whole three-piece luggage set with space to spare.

There’s a small amount of additional storage under the floor, good for charging cables, although there’s no spare wheel, only a tyre repair kit.

A lack of full-size power outlet or vehicle-to-load discharge system is a notable omission for an electric vehicle in 2026. There’s also no frunk, with the entire under-bonnet area taken up by high-voltage and battery cooling gear.

You know you're in a small vehicle when you can't fit two large (not those crazy American-style jumbo cups, just normal coffee-shop takeaway) coffees in the cupholders, but so it is with the Zeekr X.

The small SUV's 4432mm length, 1836mm in width and 1566mm height doesn't leave much room to spread out up front. There's ample room for driver and passenger, of course, but we are talking about a small vehicle here.

Clever storage helps to mitigate that, though, especially the super-deep storage space in the centre console and the very clever fridge that separates the driver and passenger seats.

Weirdly, though, the space doesn’t feel overly tight in the back seat. We had a massive baby seat in there, and that fit without issue. And full size humans can genuinely get pretty comfortable. I'm 175cm, and I had enough knee and headroom.

In the boot, there’s 404 litres of volume with the rear seats upright and 1247 litres with them folded flat. And it’s worth pointing out this isn’t intended to be a family car, but there’s certainly enough space for the shopping... and a pram.

This is a small SUV with a LOT of stuff. There are two trims in the Zeekr X range – the entry-level rear-drive model is $48,900, drive-away, while the all-wheel drive version we've tested is $57,900 on the road.

The obvious comparison is to the Volvo EX30, which shares its platform with the Zeekr X through both brands' Chinese parent company Geely.

As of right now, the cheapest single-motor Volvo is $56,051, drive-away in NSW, or $49,990 plus on-roads, making the Zeekr version much, much cheaper.

Anyway, outside there are 19- or 20-inch alloys, though our test car is fitted with the optional 20-inch black alloys, paired with a black-with-red-highlights interior treatment, which adds $2000 to the price.

Ours is also fitted with the electric front doors which open or close at the push of a button, and back doors that unlatch, but don’t fully open, the same way, which adds another $2000.

Both trims also get heated and cooled front seats, and heating in the rear window seats, but this AWD version also adds a massage function for front seat riders. 

There’s also wireless charging, a 13-speaker Yamaha sound system and — very cool, literally — is the little drinks fridge between the front seats in the AWD variant.

Tech is handled by a 14.6-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and there’s a head-up display for the driver.

The e Vitara Ultra impresses when it comes to its drive hardware. With 135kW/307Nm it’s punchy for a small SUV, with the 0-100km/h sprint time officially measured at 7.4 seconds.

It feels faster to get to 60 though, with a big surge of torque instantly available. This Ultra grade features a dual-motor all-wheel-drive set-up, and even has specific traction settings for off-road scenarios, making it theoretically more capable than some of its rivals.

The big news here is a more powerful rear motor – meaning you get more grunt whether you opt for the rear-wheel drive or this all-wheel drive.

In rear-drive form, that boosts your outputs from 200kW to 250kW, dropping the sprint to 100km/h to 5.6 seconds. In AWD guise, your new outputs are 365kW (up from 315kW) and 573Nm, and your sprint to 100km/h falls to 3.7 seconds.

This all-wheel-drive set-up comes at a significant cost. The e Vitara Ultra has a WLTP driving range of 395km and an official energy consumption of 16.5kWh/100km. Far from the 500km-plus range of some of its rivals.

But the story gets worse. While I tend to pull close to if not occasionally more than the official driving range from Hyundai and Kia models, the e Vitara fell well short of its quoted range in my testing.

While not a scientific test by any means, I drove it in regular city driving conditions with some freeway jaunts. The projected range my car was indicating on the dash was just 295km.

While the Toyota bZ4X is fairly notorious for keeping a huge emergency range reserve which impacts its overall driving range, 100km less than the claim is simply not acceptable.

It also overshot its energy consumption significantly, with the car indicating 17.9kWh/100km, which I would expect from an EV a full size bracket above this.

Compounding these issues is the sub-par charging speed. 70kW was once okay for a 61kWh battery, but is now behind the pace, with most rivals quoting 100kW of peak DC charging speed or significantly more.

As such it takes about 45 minutes to charge the e Vitara Ultra from 10-80 per cent, which is well behind the 20-30 minutes of many of its rivals. At least the AC charging speed is an acceptable 11kW.

This is where it starts to get weird. The rear-drive Zeekr X is fitted with a 61kWh LFP battery, which can accept up to 230kW DC fast charging, taking you from 10 to 80 per cent charged in just 18 minutes. Total claimed range is 405km.

The flagship AWD, though, charges at a slower rate. It gets a 66kWh NMN battery and can only be charged at 150kW, meaning the same charge takes 30 minutes. Zeekr is promising a 415km driving range between charges.

For all its flaws, the e Vitara is a nice car to drive. Unlike many of its rivals, the driving ergonomics and switchgear feel instantly familiar in this small SUV. You’re not met with an array of weird touch-based systems, strangely placed screens, or even annoying indicator stalks as you are in so many of this car’s rivals from newer brands.

It’s refreshingly straightforward when you hit the road, with more traditional assisted steering, standard pedal feel and nicely blended or near-single-pedal regenerative braking, depending on how you set it.

The e Vitara in Ultra trim with its dual-motor system is also alarmingly rapid, at least to the 60km/h mark, with its raised body lurching forward with some urgency when you stomp on the accelerator.

It’s not like any Suzuki you’ve driven before, that’s for sure.

Despite this impressive sprint ability, things are kept under control with smart traction software and halfway decent tyres keeping things civilised. There’s no violent torque-steer trying to rip the steering wheel out of your hands, or pure tyre torture you get from some EVs in this class.

The ride is comfortable, too. It's not as harsh as the likes of the Tesla Model Y, for example, but it’s also not too spongy like many China-sourced rivals.

Day-to-day it absorbs harsher road imperfections in its stride, and handles cornering with surprising grace, despite what feels like a tall ride height. Its biggest ride flaw is long undulations in the road, which give the car an unsettling floating feeling at certain cadences, as the weight of the battery starts to pendulum.

For the most part though, the e Vitara is refreshingly straightforward and feels familiar to drive, which should keep fans of the brand and those looking for a more traditional Japanese car drive experience pleased.

Short answer? Pretty good, with some caveats.

I'm partial to a firmer ride. I find some Chinese car companies can feel like they get their suspension bits from Captain Snooze, such is the soft, pillowy ride served up. And to be honest, it makes me a little seasick at times.

The Zeekr is not like that. It has firmness dialled into the ride equation and can feel harsh at times, but also improves the drive experience, delivering connection and engagement at the cost of some sharpness on the wrong road. 

It's also faster than the model it replaces, but it's also one of those cars in which the real-life feeling doesn't quite match the on-paper promise.

This thing serves up supercar speed, but it doesn't feel like it from behind the wheel. Instead, the acceleration - especially from a rolling start - feels potent, but not biblical.

From a standing start it pauses for a moment, almost like an internal-combustion vehicle might, before delivering a quick (but not stratospheric) flow of power. None of that is a bad thing, by the way. Who wants their small SUV to accelerate like a supercar?

It's otherwise an entirely pleasant drive. The cabin is serene and quiet and it's a small car that doesn't feel like one. There's nothing light or tinny about the drive experience, instead there's a heft and quality.

The Zeekr X wears a maximum five-star ANCAP safety rating, earned in 2024, which means the long list of required active safety stuff is present and accounted for, all wrapped up in what Zeekr calls its 'Intelligent Driving Assist System'.

There are five cameras, five radars and 12 sensors, which is a crazy number for a car this small.

And this is also not a car in which I was desperately trying to figure out how to deactivate any of the active safety systems – save the overzealous over-speed warning – which is a win these days, too. 

There are also seven airbags, including a centre front airbag.

The Zeekr X is fitted with ISOFIX anchors on the rear outboard seats and top tether anchorages for all rear seating positions.

Suzuki offers a five-year, unlimited kilometre warranty, which is outpaced by all of its rivals from China and most of its rivals from Japan.

The e Vitara needs to see a workshop once every 12 months or 20,000km and comes with five years of roadside assistance to match the warranty.

The brand’s genuine service program covers five years or 100,000km, with costs for this Ultra variant varying between $289 and $799 per visit, coming in at a surprisingly expensive yearly average of $503. There are combustion cars with more moving parts that are cheaper to run.

An average fast DC charge session (10-80 per cent at 60c per kWh) will cost around $21.60, while an off-peak at-home charge (at 16c per kWh) of the same amount will cost $5.76.

Zeekr's coverage is an underwhelming five-year, unlimited-kilometres, while the drive battery is covered for eight-years or 160,000km. There’s five years' of roadside assistance thrown in, too.

Service intervals are 20,000km or 12 months, with five years' of ownership setting you back a hefty $3072; an average of $614 per workshop visit.

There are currently 16 Zeekr dealers in Australia - two of which are 'pop-up' sites rather than full retail centres.

Multiple locations in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with the ACT, Adelaide and Perth also covered. Others include Geelong and the Sunshine Coast but so far you're out of luck in Tassie or the NT.