Geneva Motor Show Special: Suzuki unveil next-generation Swift

Suzuki unveiled the new India-bound Swift hatchback at the Geneva Motor Show earlier today. This car will be the third generation of the Swift to make it to the Indian market and has been heavily revised from the previous generation car.

For starters, the platform it is built on is completely new HARTEC platform.  It is considerably lighter than the older one (this new Swift is 120kg lighter than the older one), while being more rigid and this should aid in performance, handling as well as better fuel economy.

Power train options will be market specific. This particular generation of the Swift has been available in Japan for some time now and it comes with a 1.2-litre DUALJET petrol engine and a 1-litre turbo petrol Boosterjet engine (both with SHVS hybrid tech), and these engines are making it to the Europe-spec cars as well. However for India, we expect MSIL to retain the current powertrains – the 1.2-litre petrol engine and the 1.3-litre DDiS diesel engine – although tuned slightly differently for more performance and efficiency. It is also possible that they launch a Swift RS in the near future, using the 1-litre Boosterjet engine from the recently launched Baleno RS, however there is no official word on that yet.

Visually, the Swift looks rather different, although it still has that unmistakable Swift shape. The new car is 8 per cent more aerodynamic, and while it is 10mm shorter than the current Swift, it has a 20mm longer wheelbase. This has freed up considerable room on the inside: it now gets 54 more litres of luggage storage. It is also 15mm shorter and 40mm wider, but interestingly, there is 23mm more headroom in the rear while front seats are 20mm further apart.  The car also gets a 0.4 metre smaller turning radius.

Plenty has been updated on the aesthetics front. The DRL-featuring headlamps, the grille and the bumpers up front are more rouded, though they do lend the Swift a more aggressive stance. The A pillars are now blacked out giving the roof a floating effect. The rear doorhandles are now mounted on the pillar, giving it a more untarnished look at the rear. On the inside, the centre console is canted slightly towards the driver, the car features a sporty flat-bottomed steering wheel and it gets a touchscreen infotainment interface.

Internationally, the Swift comes available with a host of safety features including brake assist that automatically engages the brakes if a collision is predicted. It also gets lane departure warning, wavering alert, high beam assist, adaptive cruise control along with six airbags and EBD. The new Swift is expected in India in the second quarter of 2017. It will be interesting to see how much of this tech MSIL can sqeeze in to this car while still pricing it competitively.