R100 per 1,000km – How much you save buying the Suzuki Grand Vitara Hybrid

Suzuki’s flagship vehicle in South Africa boasts a mild-hybrid engine that promises to reduce your monthly fuel spend, but it comes at a substantial asking price compared to its peers.

The Grand Vitara was first introduced in April 2023 and is notable for being the first Suzuki in South Africa to offer a semi-electric powertrain that improves fuel efficiency by roughly 6.7%.

However, the hybrid comes at a considerable premium, so it’s best to take a look at exactly how much you’re saving on petrol each month before deciding on which model is right for you.

A big investment

The Grand Vitara range is powered by a 1.5-litre, naturally-aspirated petrol block which normally generates 77kW and 138Nm.

However, the top-spec mild hybrid benefits from an integrated starter motor and a 12V lithium-ion battery, which assists the combustion engine at low speeds to improve efficiency in situations like slow-moving traffic.

It also comes with a stop-start function to reduce idle fuel spend and regenerative brakes that provide smoother deceleration while topping up the battery pack.

The result is that the standard Grand Vitara consumes an average of 6.0l/100km, while the electrified version uses 5.6l/100km.

You can see how this affects their petrol consumption over the course of a 1,000km journey in the table below.

The fuel cost is calculated based on the current value of petrol 95, which is sitting at R24.43 per litre as of June 2024.

This works out to a fuel-saving of R97.72 per 1,000km, so we now need to look at how much more expensive the hybrid is compared to the equivalent non-electric model.

The prices of these two options are listed below:

• Suzuki Grand Vitara 1.5 GLX Auto – R436,900
• Suzuki Grand Vitara 1.5 Hybrid GLX AllGrip – R542,900

As this illustrates, you are paying a R106,000 premium for the top-end Grand Vitara.

Using this substantial sum, we can determine how far you need to drive to make up the cost difference between the two crossovers on fuel alone:

Without further context, it looks like you will need to drive a considerable 1.1 million kilometres to recoup the money spent on the hybrid, but this is not the whole story.

The range-topping Suzuki is the only one to feature an AllGrip all-wheel-drive (AWD) system while all the other units are front-wheel drive, and this is a major contributor to the crossover’s cost.

The takeaway from this exercise is that you should probably not consider the flagship Grand Vitara solely for its hybrid underpinnings, as the added spend may not make great financial sense.

Rather, it is better to think of it as an AWD family crossover, which has the benefit of saving you money over the long run.