The Japan Mobility Show opened its doors to the press on Wednesday.
Taking place at the Tokyo International Exhibition Centre from October 30 to November 9, the biennial motor spectacular has long been an event where Japanese carmakers gather to flex their muscles and reveal what’s pinging on their product radars.
One marque taking part this year is Hamamatsu-based Suzuki, which invited Motor News as one of its media guests.
Occupying a generously sized stand in the venue’s East Hall, the manufacturer showcased several vehicles, including the deliciously slab-sided XBEE (pronounced “crossbee”). Launched in 2017 the facelifted crossover sports a boxier exterior that resembles a mashup of the Jimny, Ignis and Land Rover Defender.
Powered by a 1.2l mild-hybrid petrol engine, the XBEE is something I’d love to see in SA, but unfortunately it remains exclusive to the Japanese domestic market.
Parked next to it was the more familiar Fronx, a popular seller in Mzansi, albeit with an unfamiliar power source. As indicated by the stickers across its doors, the exhibit was used to showcase Suzuki’s Flex Fuel technology, which supports ethanol-blended fuels of different concentrations.
Primarily aimed at the Indian market for now, CEO Toshihiro Suzuki said this is one of the ways the brand was working to achieve carbon neutrality in addition to the more de rigueur electrification route.
Another area of investment is compressed biomethane gas, a project Suzuki has been aggressively pursuing since 2022.
The fuel is produced from the faecal waste of dairy cows. Collected from farms and refined in a specially designed facility, a scale model of which was on display for showgoers, the novel energy source is being implemented in the carmaker’s new Victoris SUV.
Unveiled in India in September, there’s been much speculation about whether the Maruti Suzuki-built Victoris will make its way to SA as a flagship model positioned above the Grand Vitara in the local line-up.
At this stage, and even after much needling of the Suzuki SA marketing team, Motor News is unable to shed more light on the conjecture. We’ll have to see what happens in the months ahead.
Should it get the green light, we suspect it could put up a good fight against the flood of China-built SUVs invading our market, provided pricing proves competitive.
Power is unlikely to come from cow waste. Instead, we’d expect the same 1.5l four-cylinder petrol engine used in the Fronx, Jimny and Grand Vitara.
Styling is attractive with a pointy front end featuring segmented LED daytime running lights, diamond cut alloys and plenty of black cladding to protect the wheel arches and rocker panels. The rear end stands out with downward-slanting LED taillights bridged by a segmented light bar. As with other Suzuki SUV products, the Victoris offers a striking two-tone colourway and functional aluminium-look roof rails.
Other stand highlights included the recently unveiled GSX-8T and 8TT motorcycles, and the new Vision e-Sky concept, a near-production-ready kei car fitted with a compact electric powertrain designed for navigating congested Japanese cities. (A kei car falls in the smallest category of Japanese expressway-legal motor vehicles.)
It’s expected to launch sometime in 2026 and, like the XBEE, will be sold exclusively in Japan. Complementing this was an electric version of Suzuki’s iconic VanVan motorcycle, a compact two-wheeler that would perform just as well in built-up areas.
Products and technology aside, Suzuki is also using the Japan Mobility Show to reaffirm its new corporate slogan “By Your Side”, which replaces the long-lived “Way of Life” and to officially debut its updated “S” emblem that features a flatter, more contemporary design.
