Five-door Suzuki Jimny 'Long' coming next year

The new-generation Suzuki Jimny continues to attract a 12-month waiting list more than two years after its Australian launch in January 2019, and production in India from January this year is only just starting to address the born-again baby off-roader’s global supply shortage.

That has led to price hikes from Suzuki Australia and obscene asking prices for used Jimnys.

But it hasn’t stopped development of stripped-out commercial, tray-back ute and long-wheelbase five-door versions of the existing Jimny two-door – all of which Suzuki Australia has previously said it was keen to introduce here.

The long-rumoured Suzuki Jimny five-door was previously expected to be revealed this year but will now, according to Japanese website MOTA, be launched in 2022 following COVID-related delays.

Indeed, along with reporting a number of key new details, MOTA says the Jimny five-door was to have made its global debut in October at the Tokyo motor show, which has now been cancelled.

Based on an interview with Suzuki officials, MOTA says the new Suzuki Jimny Long – as it will apparently be called, at least in Japan – will eschew the model’s traditional five-slot vertical grille in favour of a horizontal single-bar unit, as you can see in the publication’s render here.

More importantly, a 300mm wheelbase stretch will liberate more cargo space, a lot more rear legroom and enough real estate for two extra rear doors – and potentially a three-position rear bench seat.

As you can see from these recent spy shots, the long-wheelbase Jimny will look otherwise identical to the three-door on which it’s based, just as the four-door Jeep Wrangler Unlimited does versus its iconic two-door donor model.

Interestingly, MOTA also reports the 2022 Suzuki Jimny Long will answer calls for more performance too, via a turbocharged petrol engine fitted with a fuel-saving mild-hybrid electrical system.

No further details were reported, but in place of the current Jimny’s lacklustre 75kW/130Nm 1.5-litre naturally-aspirated four-cylinder engine, the five-door could employ Suzuki’s 103kW/220Nm 1.4-litre turbo-petrol BoosterJet four-cylinder as seen in the Vitara Turbo.

If that’s the case, it could also upgrade from the three-door’s four-speed automatic transmission to the Vitara’s six-speed unit, alongside the standard five-speed manual.

The five-door will ride on the same rugged ladder frame as the three-door, which should also donate its dual-range transmission with 2H, 4H, 4L modes, but of course the longer wheelbase will reduce its ramp-over angle and therefore off-road ability.

All of the existing Jimny tech and safety features will also carry over, meaning there will be autonomous emergency braking (AEB) but probably the same sub-standard three-star ANCAP crash rating from 2018.

Unsurprisingly, pricing will be higher and MOTA is reporting a 300,000 yen ($A3500) price premium over the equivalent three-door model in Japan, where Jimny pricing spans about $A21,100-$A24,200.

In Australia, where the Jimny is now priced from $28,490 plus on-road costs following the recent $2500 base price increase, that would see the Jimny five-door priced from about $31,990 in manual form and $33,490 as an auto – almost $10,000 more than the new-gen Jimny’s original base price.

Related: Used Suzuki Jimny prices skyrocket
Related: Suzuki Jimny long-wheelbase spied