JIMNY IS DEAD

Sad, sad news..

Rogerzilla wrote:

Suzuki have previously said it will come back as an EV, presumably totally re-engineered with no propshaft or gearboxes needed (a motor on each axle has to be lighter and cheaper, given that you need to save as much weight as possible for the batteries). The LCV was on sale for a couple of years longer than anyone first expected.

You could market a 125-mile range Jimny, I reckon.  Few people use them for long trips.

I seriously hope not. 125 mile range is practically useless bar for about 20 people who generally have no interest in cars.

125 mile rated range would also likely only be 80 miles or so real world too.

I had a MINI Electric on demo the other year. It was great but the range meant you couldn’t use it for anything

If you want a town only car for 2 mile journeys a rugged ladder chassis 4x4 is not the primary design choice. So I pray Suzuki don’t do something so stupid. The range in the current petrol model is barely tolerable. An EV would need to at least match it.

The problem is that battery capacity will be severely limited by the need for ground clearance, centre of gravity considerations, and the fact that a body-on-chassis car with beam axles is already heavy for its size.  If they put a 65kWh battery into it, it would probably weigh at least 1.5 tonnes.

For most people a Jimny is a second car.

In terms of matching the range of the current car (about 290 miles for my LCV), you're into Tesla territory there.  Yes, it's possible, but the resulting car would be Defender-sized and weigh well over 2 tonnes.  It wouldn't be anything like a Jimny.

Sas nees indeed, worse still they aren't doing it because they want to but because of stupid idiotic laws.
I'm glad it won't affect us here, but I can only hope they introduce a hybrid version for the UK and Europe as an EV Jimny would be absolutely useless.
but the resale value of gen 4 jimnys is about to shoot up dramatically.

The stupidest thing is if EV's actually worked yiu wouldn't need to mandate them, they would sell on their own. At present I average around 440-450km between fill ups and I have to get a long range tank because that just isn't enough.
cutting that range with battery power makes the jimny absolutely useless to use one practically.

Rogerzilla wrote:

The problem is that battery capacity will be severely limited by the need for ground clearance, centre of gravity considerations, and the fact that a body-on-chassis car with beam axles is already heavy for its size.  If they put a 65kWh battery into it, it would probably weigh at least 1.5 tonnes.

For most people a Jimny is a second car.

In terms of matching the range of the current car (about 290 miles for my LCV), you're into Tesla territory there.  Yes, it's possible, but the resulting car would be Defender-sized and weigh well over 2 tonnes.  It wouldn't be anything like a Jimny.

Not sure we can really speculate on what would or would not be possible. Tech is changing all the time and there are other small EV’s with ok to good ranges.

I would say I’m not sure I agree that the Jimny is already heavy. The Gen 4 Jimny meeting current regs weighs less than a Gen 1 RAV4. So I’m unconvinced that body on chassis is heavier.

I also don’t think you can make a sweeping statement that they are all 2nd cars. That would be a very odd design decision for Suzuki to assume. I may own multiple vehicles myself, but my Jimny is my main daily driver and most certainly not a 2nd vehicle.

As for range. 290 miles sounds good, but you must be driving like Miss Daisy. You certainly will not see that if you are running at motorway speeds or if you enjoy the rev range. 230-260miles is probably more realistic for the current model across a wider sampling of driver styles and allowing for things people do to off rod vehicles such as fit AT or MT tyres.

If you're only getting 230 miles per tank from a car with a claimed range of 320 miles, you'd need a similar electric range and that's not going to happen in a Jimny-sized package without some breakthrough in battery technology and cost.

Where there is a big difference between ICE and EV efficiency is in the balance between what the USians would call highway and city.  EVs give their best efficiency in slower, stop-start conditions. They are less efficient at high constant speeds.  This effect will be even more pronounced in a Jimny, as the gen4 in particular has no pretence to aerodynamics.  So an electric Jimny would be a great town car, but pretty terrible for motorway trips.