Posting this car as even though it's a "mild" hybrid, a manual hybrid is unique and it's the only one I've ever seen. It's also efficient for the price and should not have as many quality issues as some other cheap cars with rapidly rising popularity.
3.8L/100km manual and 4.0L/100km auto.
1.2L engine.
Long running.
also, driving instructors will tell you not to coast in neutral (in a manual), as you are not in control of the vehicle
apparently this will switch off the engine when slowing below 12kmh: in a real hybrid you would still have the electric motor to power you before the engine kicks on, should you need to get moving in a hurry. here do you have to twiddle your thumbs and wait for engine to start up again?
3.8L/100km though.That's pretty good
a Mazda 2 uses a little more but doesn't require 95 RON
@mushi33: Very true - I have had 3, and none have ever got close to the claim…
but my Kia was even thirstier
@mushi33: Really living that driving my Mazda 6 MPS, I don't think I've ever reach close to it's rated 10.5l/100km, that thing chugs.
@Nugs: I doubt people get an MPS for economy. In fact it would give the caprice a run.
Reminds me back in the day when I had a kingswood V8 wagon and my mate had a little RX4 rotary. We went on a run down the freeway to Sydney and back one weekend in both cars loaded with our friends, filled up half way back. The RX4 drank an extra $10 of fuel at a time when you could fill up the kingswood for $30.
But my goodness that thing was fun to drive. Accel was incredible.
@Nugs: Had a 97 maloo many years ago wish i didnt trade it worth considerably more now.
I use to sit on about 98kph and fuel usage i could get down to 8.5lt/100 of course get a bit heavy with the foot it was a completely different story.
@mushi33: I don't know about that… I mean, no one ever gets claimed fuel usage from ANY car to be honest. I just don't think Mazda is any worse.
We've had a Mazda2 and that thing was unbelievably cheap to run… to the point I initially doubted the fuel gauge A LOT.
After that we got a Mazda3 BM and again, really good on fuel compared to the Golf we had at the same time. The Mazda3 had a 2L engine and the Golf was the 1.4 variant and if I had to guess, the Mazda was around 15-20% better on fuel.
Now, of course your mileage may very (literally) but that's my experience
@educalifa: That's really odd. All 3 of my watercooled VWs have got the claimed (or better) fuel economy. It's one of the things that VW hasn't told porkies about
@brad1-8tsi: I also have a Octavia RS and that also doesn't get the claimed figures but it's not far. Hwy driving is where it reaaaaaally shines. Went from Sydney to Brisbane and back on a double demerits long weekend and it did 4.7L despite some driving around the burbs and whatnot.
Having said that, that will ever only happen when double demerits are active haha
no one ever gets claimed fuel usage from ANY car to be honest
I get way better than the sticker fuel consumption on my Clio Sport.
The test wasn't the same for every vehicle. If a car has more performance the test is done using that performance. I guess I must go quick by not slowing down for the corners rather that wringing its neck out of the corners.
here do you have to twiddle your thumbs and wait for engine to start up again?
Well if you have ever driven a really really low powered car, it feels that way anyway….im looking at you Suzuki Swift (wasnt my car, but I had to take it to mechanics and it was scary as trying to accellerate and merge into highway speeds, it was such an anemic drive)
Why the hell would you "coast in nuetral"? If fuels that tight for you , maybe you shouldn't own a car .
I do it because I find it a more comfortable way to drive. Nothing to do with fuel.
@King Tightarse: coasting in Nuetral. I don't agree with it but how would that cause premature wear on the thrust bearing?
doing it by holding the clutch in to "save petrol"
Why would you hold the clutch in if you are in neutral? You may as well just leave it in gear if you are going to regulate power transmission with the clutch.
@brad1-8tsi: I have seen people do this in my student days.
Carburetor cars used to still use fuel, even when decelerating, say going down a hill. Some people would push the clutch in to save a tiny bit of fuel and let it back out when under power without changing gears or selecting neutral.
Which potentially leads to early failure of the thrust bearing..
I don't
it's a 12V stop start system
Well, yes and no. It has no starter motor or alternator, so not a "conventional" stop/start system. Utilises an ISG, so technically it is a mild hybrid, even if the system is only 12V and not the usual 48V that other mild hybrids use.
Is my 2012 BMW X3 also mild hybrid for using start/stop and regenerative braking?
What does it do with the regen power?
@DingoBlue: It uses the starter motor to provide a small boost during acceleration.
Mild hybrids tend to be much smoother than traditional start-stop systems.
@DingoBlue: It’s what most manufacturers are now doing…
Even Toyota have started to introduce it.
* https://www.drive.com.au/news/2024-toyota-hilux-mild-hybrid-…
It does help a bit with fuel economy though.
For example the Volvo T5 engine is identical to the Volvo B5 engine, except for the inclusion of mild hybrid technology. The Volvo XC60 T5 gets 8.7L/100km, whereas the Volvo XC60 B5 gets 7.6L/100km.
2kw battery? Ultra mild
No, it would be a 2kW “hybrid” electric motor. A battery would be measured in kWh or Ah (FWIW, it’s a 10Ah battery)
The hybrid motor @ 12v and having 2.3kW would have about as much power as a household high power vacuum cleaner.
2.3KW IS the power of the motor
So, exactly what I said, that kW rating was for the motor, not the battery…
In the case of a vacuum cleaner that pulls max load from a 10amp socket;
240v x 9.5a is 2300w… or, weirdly enough, 2.3kW
For this “hybrid”, it’s a 2.3kW motor, meaning at 12v, it would need to be pulling;
2300w / 12v = 192 amps.
2300w is 2300w. Doesn’t matter if I’m pulling it from 240v @ 9.5a, or 12v @ 192a, it’s the same.
So, yeah, my vacuum is 2.3kW ;) if anyone doesn’t understand electricity, it’s you.
As for your lawnmower example… the most common engine going around at the moment is the Briggs and Stratton 500 series. The 140cc variant has a hp rating of 3.75hp, or about 2.8kW. So, yeah.
@pegaxs: Just want to say that one of the biggest joys I have in reading online discussions is watching someone confidently mistaken getting comprehensively taken apart.
@ClintonL: He really didn't though, everything I said was correct. He just repeated it and expanded on it.
Why say "2.3kw @12v is like a vacuum cleaner", the 12v is irrelevant. Not only that he then goes on to use a 240v vacuum as as example, not a 12v or 18v like most battery vacs. Also it was a rookie error on my part to claim he didn't have a 2.3kw vac, of course he does…most however are like 900w to 1200w.
2.3KW IS 2.3KW, whether it's supplied by 12v or 240v. You just need bigger wires for 12V.
@Binchicken22: I feel like you missed the point of pegaxs's first comment - he was correcting turk182 on his reference to this car having a "2kw battery".
@johnno07: I don't know what his point was, maybe I did miss it.
However the comment, "The hybrid motor @ 12v and having 2.3kW would have about as much power as a household high power vacuum cleaner", certainly seemed to imply that the motor had about as much power as a battery powered vacuum cleaner… When no, it doesn't, a battery vac is like 500W~. That was the point I was trying to make, this hybrid electric motor, whilst very small in the hybrid electric vehicle space, is in no way comparable to a battery vacuum.
Anyway, I'm an electrician, so none of this is new to me and as I said, nothing in my original post or follow up post was incorrect, old mate just repeated and further expanded on it (I guess he wanted to prove he knew about the relation between watts, amps and volts)… Anyway, the masses on here have made up their mind, I got "schooled" apparently lol. So I'll leave it at that.
@johnno07: Batteries also have maximum current draws, so it's technically correct so say that a battery is 2kw if it's rated to deliver 2kw - no matter what the capacity of the battery. Technically correct doesn't mean it's correct or intended usage though.
@pegaxs: Wouldn't the power value for an electric/hybrid car's motor be representing the shaft power, whereas the vacuum cleaner it's power delivered to the motor?
@nigel deborah: No. It is an electric motor on the "electric/hybrid" engine, why would it be any different than a motor on a vacuum cleaner? (apart from one being AC and one being DC.) They are both electric motors driven by electricity.
What you want to be looking at is "torque". How much torque is supplied from a 12v, 2.3kW @ 192amps compared to a 240v, 2.3kW @ 9.5amp motor.
A 12v hybrid assist motor would be spinning very low in the rev range, as to make the best use of that instant/low RPM torque that electric motors are known for. So, if we say that the 12v hybrid motor is spinning at about 2,500rpm, it will be making about 9Nm of torque. (this is based on the electric motor being 100% efficient, which it isnt, but it makes my calcs easier to do.)
On the other side of the scale, the 240v vacuum cleaner needs to shift MASSIVE amounts of air and to do this, it needs to be spinning fast, so, let's say, it has to operate in the 10,000rpm range, then, it is going to have a torque value of about 2Nm.
"Power" is just a measure of the amount of work that can be done by something over a given time frame, ie: how much work (torque) can be done in a set time (rpm). To get more "power", you need to increase either your "torque" or you need to increase the frequency at which you can apply the torque in that same time frame (more RPMs)
So, while the hybrid motor and the vacuum cleaner have the same "power", they do not have the same "torque", so you are kinda correct, it's not their shaft "power" but their shaft "torque" we need to look at.
Even if they were to up the voltage of the hybrid motor and battery system to 48v, instead of 12v and pull the same amps (192a), that hybrid assist would now be adding 35Nm of torque to assist. 9Nm would barely run an AC compressor.
@pegaxs: I don't agree. The shaft power of an electric motor is still a relevant number, more so than torque. With the right gearing (or internal motor configuration), you can deliver huge torque even from a small motor. Power better represents it's ability to accelerate a vehicle (force over rpm/distance as you say), which is what's important for this application.
Anyway, if I buy a Tesla, powered by electric motors, their power is reported in kW. But it's (max) shaft power, not motor power draw. Just wondering if that's also the case for hybrids.
@pegaxs: The specs actually say it adds 60Nm with the boost from the electric system.
Don’t ask me how it makes so much torque but only 2.3kW.
Maybe it only spins up in a narrow rpm range and then it cuts out again
sat in a ignis the other day for a joke. well suprised to see there on the website i thought it was from 2006.
The Suzuki website looks like it's from 2006? I mean it's nothing special but I remember how bad they were in 2006
throwing hybrid on this is the same as tech companies throwing the term AI on everything
https://www.drive.com.au/reviews/2024-suzuki-swift-hybrid-re…
on our 53km, hour-long preview drive, it only conserved 42ml of petrol compared to 2.37L consumed according to the trip computer – a saving of just 1.7 per cent.
However, the mild-hybrid system in the Suzuki Swift only runs at 12 volts, and the electric motor can only supply up to 2.3kW. That is about the same power delivered by two household food blenders.
In most reviews it did achieve or come close to the claimed fuel consumption of 4L/100kms. Isn't better fuel efficiency the whole point of hybrid? Regardless of 12v or 24v.
A very sensible comment.
Why can’t I get something like this in a pure EV…
And manual hybrid… very interesting way to do things.
self-charging electric motor and 12V lithium-ion battery
Hahaha… HOW many volts? It has a 10Ah capacity “hybrid” battery. This is a 0.12kWh capacity @ 12v. At full load, the hybrid system would run for about 16 mins.
You would get better performance hooking up a Ozito drill to the crank and using that… 😂🤣
Because making Swift a pure EV will add another $20K on top of its price ;p
I don’t think it would if they made it a shopping trolly, mum taxi.
I would certainly buy a Suzuki Swift EV for $39,990 over buying a GWM Ora for $36,990.
It is important to clarify;
There is a QLD Suzuki dedicated site, https://suzukiqld.com.au/build-my-suzuki-online-queensland/ making the price 'at least' $27,180 drive-away.
Stock availability will be around OCT I was told at the local Suzuki dealership and they had no manual 'on-site' for a test drive.
So QLD has different pricing and very limited availability.
Different importer.
Not sure what is going on only the fact we have different prices and possibly access limitations.
Isn’t this RRP? According to this article the price has gone up from the last model
https://www.drive.com.au/news/2024-suzuki-swift-price-and-sp…
So… better off getting an MG3 for 25K driveaway??? Kidding….
Not a silly suggestion, I think both MG3 Hybrid and Swift Hybrid will be compared a lot in the near future.
You are kidding aren’t you? One manufacture has the reputation of producing some of the worst cars on the roads, the other some of the most reliable (excluding their Indian manufactured models) in the small car segment.
to be fair, since when did suzuki ever had a 'most reliable' reputation?
Their reputation in cars is for building small Japanese economical cars that aren't as popular as the other Japanese or Korean brands, and a jeep ripoff that is the jimny let's be honest (https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/5572391…).
Personally think they are reliable, and I have one too, but the reputation part, I don't agree with.
@smartProverble: The jimny is an evolution of a 4x4 Kei car. It no longer fits the specs of a kei car, but that's how it started.
was looking MG ZS for parents, but only 4 star safety rating. 25k budget.
Not sure what state you're in, but Haval Jolion is 26K driveaway in Vic. It is miles better than the MG ZS. Edit: Or pay 27K for the brand new 2024 Jolion refresh that was just released a few weeks ago.
I was passed by one of these the other day and it sounded like the entire front subframe was about to break loose
Look elsewhere , maybe a swift !
why would you punish them with a MG
Sadly this is just Suzuki hyping up something because they lost 1/3 of their sales due to baleno being discontinued.
Swift market has always been females and refusal to release the swift and swift sport hybrid Australia for last 7 years until now is laughable.
Why was the belano discontinued? And was it actually rubbish, as suggested by another commenter above (because it's indian made)?
It's not particularly a nice looking car but i liked seeing a fellow Suzuki on the road, and we have uglier cars (CH-R and the new BMW and some Chinese cars)
Because of the ANCAP rating is what I was told by Werribee Suzuki
The swift sport hybrid is nowhere near as fun as the outright sport, going by reports online. Sluggish etc.
Suzuki really need to put a little more money into their cars and put in a electronic brake motor across their range. Creates so much more storage space in the middle for all the tiny cars that they make.
The Swift also needs to have a centre armrest. Its really unacceptable to release a brand new model in 2024 and have customer's rocking it out in an interior that was considered standard in the 80's and 90's.
What? Get rid of the manual handbrake?
The Swift is a simple car mechanically and very light, that is why it is so durable and economical to run and own.
They shouldn’t stuff around with it like they have done with the hybrid, at least offer a normal version.
Its not a sports car so no it doesnt need a manual handbrake. And unlike a sports car, Suzuki is using it purely to save cost. Its hardly a hot hatch even if you stretch the imagination, especially with how the new model looks uglier than the outgoing model. The target market isnt drifting with a FF hatchback.
What I'm asking for is basically the equivalent to asking for central locking and powered windows/mirrors during the 2000's. It should be expected to have available on a newly launched model that will see them out to early 2030's.
The manual handbrake will help for its 2nd life in a decade when it's used as a teenagers drift car.
Nothing is simpler than a manual handbrake on the Swift. A lever, a cable and drum brake. Extremely durable.
The Swift is a cheap cheerful car despite being made in Japan. It fills a niche, if you want fancy stuff buy something else that costs far more.
This hybrid system by Suzuki is a departure from that which may hurt them.
@Grok: Yeah I have trouble trusting electric handbrakes. I'd like to know that there's one thing in the car that directly links me to the ability to slow the car down. I'm fine with most other electronics, but I don't see a reason for electronic handbrakes.
The current swift sport is a 160 odd HP, sub 1000kg rocket cart that'll still be going hard when GTI's plastic water pumps start exploding.
"really need to put in an electronic brake?" It's a cheap low spec car, FFS!
Except its a $27,000 "cheap low spec". Small cars like these have next to zero storage space. Getting rid of the manual handbrake creates at least a little more storage whilst being easier to maintain and service in the future.
Zero storage is total exaggeration, I have a Yaris Hybrid which isn't much different. And a manual handbrake is one of the most reliable and simplest components in a car. I've never heard of any repairs or recalls related to those conversely I have heard of heaps of e-Brake recalls due to the faulty behavior. Subaru just a big one not too long ago where the car could roll away and the thing is you wouldn't know because you can't tell what's happening with an e-Brake.
@plmko: When a manual handbrake cables becomes stretched or corroded, you're in for a much more annoying service than your typical e-brake.
You havent heard of it but doesn't mean it wont happen. I pay attention to it simply because I had it happen to me on a mid 2000's Corolla with a cable that was stretched and created a lot of noise everytime you entered.
Nobody pay attention about things like this until you get the heavy quote from the mechanics to fix the issue. E-brakes are a godsend to everyone, additional features like auto off and brake hold as well as a much easier job for mechanics.
Also you should look at the interior of the Swift before you comment. The cupholders cannot hold anything normal sized and tell me where you can put your sunnies other than having to use the glove box or the open door bin.
@Fuzor: I guarantee a cable over some eletronic braking system , your not comprehending a few years when the electrics start to play up.
@Fuzor: Not sure about other cars, but my Triton's manual handbrake is designed to be easily serviceable (adjusting a nut under a removable panel in the centre console).
My point being I don't think manual handbrakes are that much of a service headache. Drum brakes are a bit annoying though…
@seabombs: Drum brakes are a bit annoying, but you'll probably never had to replace the liners on your handbrake drum.
Toyota gets away with decades old interiors and pathetic boring screens
Wow I remember when these were 15k drive away they are a rip now
I am a big fan of the Swift, in fact I own one, but this Mild Hybrid is a stupid pointless design in my opinion.
It adds complication, cost and maintenance to a model car known for its simplicity, light weight and extreme durability.
The Mild Hybrid system only marginally improves fuel economy, yet has expensive maintenance longer term. The hybrid system is driven by a belt, how long does that last? And the battery? It would be getting extreme cycling from empty to full constantly.
The system is simply pointless.
It uses a 12V 10Ah AGM lithium-ion battery for the mild hybrid system, this is a common battery size used in conventional stop/start systems that have been around for decades and costs around $200.
If I read the right document from Suzuki, they’re using a proprietary lithium-ion pack but for how small the battery pack is I doubt it will be that expensive to replace.
Your car’s alternator is driven by a belt, how long does that last? The integrated starter generator on this Swift is not black magic, it’s literally just an alternator and starter motor in one assembly.
I would say that Mitsubishi ASX offers better value for money at a similar price point
very old design now
The ASX drivetrain is very unrefined even when it was launched. Also there is no digital speed readout even though it has a reasonable sized lcd screen in the instrument cluster. I just drove a 2017 Kia Rio that has a readout. Driving with all of Australia's speed camera's and trigger happy highway patrols, a digital readout is a must have.
That was a face lift. Basic design is 14 years old
https://www.drive.com.au/news/mitsubishi-asx-successor-previ…
@King Tightarse: people got no idea what a 'face lift' is
its new lights blinkers interior trim etc.
its NOT a new platform, engine etc.
BUT saying that the ASX is a safe buy given its got 14yrs of parts and knowledge behind it
there's millions out there, they cant be wrong as long as you're ok with a stodgey 1.8 cvt shitty mini suv
a bit of a reach by Suzuki to call it a hybrid. it's a 12V stop start system