Suzuki launches all-new eighth-generation Alto in Japan

Suzuki Motor Corporation has launched the all-new Alto in Japan today. The new eighth-generation Alto adopts a newly-developed platform for the first time and achieves a weight reduction of 60kg through changes in the body, engine, suspensions, and seats, as well as a new platform. It uses high-tensile steel on 46 percent of the whole body weight to ensure weight reduction and rigidity.

Some of the dimensional highlights of the new Alto are a wheelbase of 2460mm, cabin length of 2040mm and a turning radius of 4.2m.

Along with the enhanced efficiency of the powertrain, Suzuki says it has it has realised fuel consumption of 37.0km/L (for the 2WD version equipped with CVT), the lowest among non-hybrid petrol vehicles in Japan (using measurement in the JC08 test cycle) and claimed to combine light and steady driving performance.

Suzuki says it has achieved weight reduction by renewal of a platform and major improvement in rigidity and quietness, collision performance and driving performance. It has secured enough body rigidity with fewer parts by making a smooth platform shape to reduce reinforcement parts and reducing the sheet thickness while joining basic cross-section.

It has also adopted a new suspension that helps reduce weight, achieving combined weight reduction and high rigidity by making the suspension frame into a flat structure, and making it a part of the body frame.

The new Alto also offers improved riding comfort by expanding the front and rear suspension strokes. It has adopted a stabiliser on the front and rear (for X 2WD variant) and a newly adopted torsion beam suspension on the rear, which contributes to weight reduction (for 2WD).

While adopting a simple design with the exterior focusing on quality and proportion, and the interior combining design and function, it also realises roomy cabin space with the longest cabin length in its class, owing to its stretched long wheelbase.
Further, by incorporating advanced safety technologies such as the Radar Brake Support collision-mitigation braking system, the carmaker says the Alto has evolved in fuel efficiency, driving performance, design, and safety performance, while brushing up basic performances including the ease of maneuverability and handling.

The Alto was first launched in May 1979 in Japan as a utility minicar with the ease of driving and use, economic efficiency, and inexpensive price setting. It became popular mainly among female customers and pioneered a new market for minicars. Throughout its 35-year history, the Alto has notched accumulated domestic sales of approximately 4.83 million units. It is a model that represents Japanese minicars.