The new Suzuki Swift, launched this year, has a 1.2 liter gasoline-powered engine in 3 cylinders that is also equipped with a mild hybrid powertrain. This system uses a 12 volt battery and it's the same as the powertrain mounted on the Suzuki Ignis, another city-focused car from the Japanese brand. On the Vitara, the mild hybrid system is connected to a 48 volt battery, so it's a bit more punchy.

What is a mild hybrid system and how does it help when driving? I wrote about hybrid cars in the past on Green Start-Up and the difference between the three system, mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full hybrid, respectively, if you want to read more about these systems.

What is a mild hybrid and why is it good for a city car

Briefly, a mild hybrid system helps with accelerating from a stand-still, it also starts the combustion engine when the start-stop system is operating and it also helps run the auxiliary systems, such as the air conditioning.

A mild hybrid car can never run in electric mode only, it just helps assist the combustion engine. Not all mild hybrids are the same, some assists the gasoline or diesel engines more than others, but that raises the cost or production, as well as the weight of the vehicle, since they come with a larger and heavier battery and electric motor.

The Swift is equipped with a lithium-ion battery of unspecified capacity, but it is coupled to a 12 volt system, so the assistance for the gasoline engine is limited. The electric motor is a 3 HP unit with 60 Nm of torque, so that's why the push is fairly modest. But there is an impulse nonetheless, because the car goes fairly quickly from nothing up to 60-80 km/h, after which the acceleration starts to temper a bit.

In the city, the Swift is more than enough and the combustion engine being naturally aspirated in 3 cylinders and 1.2 liters in capacity is a durable, economical and simple configuration. It's well-known that Japanese manufacturers make some of the best engines, especially gasoline-powered and this one in particular is made only by Suzuki. The car picks up speed quickly and gets up to speed fast, if needed, but the fuel consumption will increase if you drive it in a sporty way.

I got 5.7 liters per 100 kilometers while driving on a mixture of city, highway and winding roads and following a morning drive through Bucharest's packed roads, the consumption rose to 6.1 liters.

As far as I am concerned, these are good results and the mild hybrid system definitely has its play in the good fuel economy. Because you have an electric motor and a battery, the air conditioning remains turned on even when the gasoline engine goes silent, so this is a great benefit of the system. Take note that, if you need to turn the steering left or right while the combustion engine is off, you won't be able to, so the hybrid system doesn't offer power steering.

Speaking of steering, it is fairly stiff even while driving, which may seem weird on a city-focused vehicle, but in exchange, the feedback from the road is very good and you have greater control over the ride.

How the Suzuki Swift feels in the city, as well as on longer trips

The Swift is a city-oriented car, so when you'll drive it in packed traffic, the engine will turn off and back on quite a lot, although you can deactivate the start-stop function if you so desire. The button is very handly positioned on the left side, near the steering wheel. Even if the combustion engine is a 3 cylinder unit, the overall car doesn't vibrate too much and the ignition of the engine is very smooth thanks to the electric motor, which acts as a starter. This is a big plus, because it helps prolong the lifespan of this component and the car quickly gets going after the engine has started, so the system has been optimized very well and it's why I didn't feel like I needed to deactivate the start-stop function.

For longer trips, the Suzuki Swift has been unexpectedly good for such a small car. Keep in mind that we are talking about a car that's smaller than a Toyota Yaris and only slightly larger than a Dacia Spring. It stays planted on the road even on the highway or on winding roads, even at speeds in excess of 140 km/h. The stiffer steering helps with the sensation of a more stable ride, but so does the suspension, which is optimized to offer both comfort and stability. The ride will get a bit noisy once you go above 120 km/h, but it's somewhat normal for its class, where the sound insulation has been optimized more for the city traffic.

It's fair that this is not the car you pick for long family trips and its small size means that it's not the most comfortable on imperfect roads, but that being said, it does more than a decent job overall. It sits very well on curvy roads, because it has a lower ground clearance and the weight is distributed more towards the bottom side. The seats also offer good enough protection for the moments when you are taking a corner at slightly higher speed.

The Swift is truly a "playful" car and that's where the manual transmission will come in handy, I think. I had the automatic CVT transmission for the test drive and it works just fine. At lower speeds it tends to shake the car a bit and that's where a full hybrid system would have been ideal, as it would have been able to run in electric mode only. I chose the automatic transmission for my tests because I though that this was the ideal model for driving in traffic jams, because it might be tiring to press the clutch continuously just to move a few meters.

The Suzuki Swift has almost every safety feature

Being a new car, the Swift has pretty much everything it needs for safe driving, with a small minus that I only noticed afterwards. We are being used to the fact that new cars, regardless of the manufacturer, come with. parking sensors both on the front and the back. The swift has a decent back-up camera, you can easily make use of it and it even has reverse parking sensors, but that's it.

The Japanese manufacturer didn't install any front parking sensors on the Swift, which might be a problem at first, since the car has a hood that's curved towards the front side, so it may be difficult to tell where it ends. If it's darker outside, you can make use of the reflections from the headlights, but even so I think a set of frontal sensors would have been ideal.

Otherwise, the Swift is packed with everything needed for safe driving in 2024. You are being warned if you get too close to the car in front of you and the system uses the front camera, which is also able to read the speed limit signs, you have traction control, lane assist and other basic features nowadays. The traction control system works very well, indeed and for even more control on a wet road, for example, the Swift can be equipped with the AllGrip system. We're talking about a 4WD system that can be selected manually or automatically, whenever the car feels a loss in traction.

AllGrip helps whenever there's snow, mud or sand below the wheels and Suzuki is well-known for its reliable 4WD traction systems that perform very well.

Suzuki Swift is very comfortable in the city and on longer trips

As I said, the Suzuki Swift feels very comfortable on the inside. You have enough space in the front, even the back seat is fairly roomy, you have plenty of space above your head and the front seats don't block the view. If the driver or the passenger in the front aren't very tall or don't slide the seats all the way back, the other two in the back won't be fighting for space. A little less impressive is the space in the boot, at just 265 liters, but on such a small car, a sacrifice had to be made and it's a good thing that it wasn't the passengers who took the proverbial hit.

You can fold the rear seats if needed for extra space, which grows to almost 600 liters, so there's that.

What really impressed me with the Swift was the construction. I was expecting from a city-focused car made in 2024 to be more fragile, the chassis to be flimsy and the doors or the boot to feel "empty". And still, the Swift proved me that a new and affordable car doesn't have to be manufactured cheaply. The chassis is fairly thick, the doors sound nice and full when you close them and even the boot is sturdy. Yes, on the inside there's only plastic on the doors and the dashboard, but even that feels like good quality and well put together.

The seats are very comfortable, made from textile materials and are even heated on a single stage. The air conditioning system is automatic and works very well, as well, since the car isn't too bit itself, so it heats quickly. I couldn't tell if the steering is heated, because I didn't find the button for that, but since we're on this subject, all the commands are very well positioned and you learn them fast, so the Swift is ergonomic. I appreciated that everything is simple, yet feels complete in the Swift.

The price for the new Swift and thoughts on the mild hybrid system

The new swift starts at 16.350 euros for the version with the manual transmission and Suzuki recommends a promotional price of 14.700 euros in Romania, but this can go all the way up to 20.400 euros for the top version with a CVT transmission. Given that the Dacia Spring goes to nearly 20.000 euros in its top spec, as well, I don't know what you would choose, but I know what I would buy.

It's true that the Swift is not electric or even full hybrid, so it can't drive in electric mode only at slow speeds, but the system is good enough to reduce emissions and the consumption on this category, to keep the air conditioning going all the time and to smoothly start the gasoline engine.

Swift is built very well, it has good, if not premium, materials and the construction is very solid, overall. The front parking sensors are missing, but being a small car, maybe you won't miss the m too much. It does very well in the city and can even take you on a longer trip, if you don't have a large family.

As far as the mild hybrid system is concerned, I don't think it's necessarily a system for the mid-long future of green mobility. It can't run in electric mode only, so it doesn't cut the fuel consumption as much as a full or plug-in hybrid car. It has the advantage of a lower purchase price, it's a simpler system overall and doesn't add a lot of weight, but that's about where the big advantages stop. It clearly is better to have a mild hybrid system in your car than no hybrid at all, but for the far future, the full and plug-in hybrids are the way to go.