Suzuki Alto successor takes shape

Suzuki has confirmed its all-new Celerio city-car will be produced in Thailand, potentially making it even better value when it arrives in Australia early next year.

First revealed at the Delhi and Geneva motor shows in March, the Celerio is Suzuki’s new global compact car and will replace the brand’s cheapest model in Australia, the Alto, by around March 2015.

Suzuki used this week’s Bangkok International Motor Show to reveal the European-spec Celerio, which will more closely resemble the version sold here than the Indian-built model already on sale on the sub-continent, before it goes on sale across Europe later this year.

Suzuki Australia is yet to confirm whether our Celerio will come from Thailand, which will produce the Celerio for both the domestic and European markets from May. Suzuki’s Rayong plant was established as a ‘global strategic production hub’ for the Swift in March 2012.

However, Thai production of Australia’s Celerio seems a formality given the Asian kingdom’s proximity to Australia, which has a free-trade agreement with Thailand.

This could allow Suzuki Australia to make the Celerio even better value than the Indian-made Alto, which is already one of Australia’s cheapest cars, priced from $11,790 plus on-road costs.

Currently only the Chery J1 hatch ($9990 drive-away) undercuts the Alto hatch on price, although Proton’s pint-size S16 sedan is also effectively cheaper at $12,990 drive-away.

“Taking into consideration plant production capacities and specification requirements within the various regions and also seeking to achieve maximum productivity efficiency worldwide, Suzuki has decided to produce the European-specification Celerio in Thailand,” said Suzuki.

The sub-light Celerio five-door is about 100mm longer than the Alto at 3600mm but rides on a 75mm shorter (2425mm) wheelbase, while width is unchanged at 1600mm and height increases by 70mm to 1540mm.

As such, it’s claimed to deliver an “outstandingly spacious interior” and best-in-class luggage capacity of 254 litres.

Suzuki has now confirmed the Euro-spec Celerio will be powered by a more advanced ‘K10C’ version of the Indian-built car’s 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine, featuring dual fuel-injection.

Combined with a lower kerb weight and improved aerodynamics, it says the Celerio will produce class-leading CO2 emissions of just 85g/km.

Expect the Alto to arrive Down Under around the same time as the production version of the all-new iV-4 crossover, which is based on the same new platform as the S-Cross SUV released here last month.

Before then in October, Suzuki Australia will release an upgraded version of its trusty Jimny 4x4 fitted with electronic stability control.

See photos from the Bangkok motor show