Suzuki Plans 3 New Concepts for 2013 Tokyo Motor Show

With the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show looming less than one month away, this is an extremely important time for every Japanese automaker. Everyone is competing for a share of the hype leading up to Japan’s biggest automotive event of the year. As of today, Suzuki has jumped into the fray with official confirmation of three new concepts to be showcased at the end of November.

The overarching theme behind Suzuki’s three new concepts is, “Let’s Create a Brand New Story”. In addition to the various cars that’ll be in their booth, the maker of Small Cars for a Big Future will also showcase a set of introductory videos for each new concept, “to show the brand-new story of Suzuki and its customers in a beautiful image.” They’ll be produced by movie director Shinji Iwai, so these won’t be your typical concept car videos!

But enough about videos and booths; below you’ll learn everything about Suzuki’s biggest batch of new concepts this year.

Crosshiker Concept

The Crosshiker Concept is a compact crossover built on the exact same platform as the 2011 REGINA concept. The REGINA, otherwise known as the G70 concept, was an extremely efficient concept targeted towards a global market. It was small enough for city roads while maintaining the spaciousness of an SUV. The Crosshiker concept goes smaller still with a total weight of just 1,785 lbs, or 810 kg. Plus, it gets an improved three-cylinder 1.0L engine.

Aesthetically, the Crosshiker evokes a lightweight Nissan Juke, and it’d be surprising if that weren’t at least part of Suzuki’s design inspiration. Don’t take that as a complaint, though; the seamless panoramic roof more than makes up for any underlying unoriginality.

X-LANDER Concept

Next up, we have the X-LANDER Concept, which is a roofless compact SUV designed as a sort of futuristic, urban Suzuki Jimny.

As you can probably guess from the rugged-looking tires, the X-LANDER Concept features four-wheel-drive. What you might not guess is that the aforementioned 4WD is connected with a lightweight hybrid powertrain featuring a 1.3L engine and a “highly efficient” electric motor. On top of all that, the X-LANDER gets a new “automatically controlled manual transmission”… If that makes sense.

According to Suzuki, “The [X-LANDER’s] design is loaded full of playful touches [for a] fusion of off-road power and mechanical precision. Drivers can use the car in the city and sometimes go out to play in the field.”

Hustler & Hustler Coupe Concepts

Finally, Suzuki will round out their Tokyo Motor Show debuts with a pair of concepts called the Hustler and Hustler Coupe.

The Hustler Concept is a practical SUV for drivers who love the outdoors. The Hustler Coupe Concept is a uniquely intriguing city car that’s, oddly enough, not actually a coupe.

As you can see, the Hustler Coupe is clearly a five door vehicle, even if the back handles are cleverly hidden behind the back-door windows. Suzuki clarifies in their press releases that the Hustler Coupe concept is merely a “further design variation” that molds the previous Hustler SUV into a coupe-like silhouette.

At the beginning of their press release, Suzuki hinted that one of these three concepts would lead to a near-immediate production model, one would be coming within a year, and the last would be nothing more than a prequel to something long-term.

While Suzuki didn’t specify which concepts were coming when, if a guess had to be made, the Hustler and Hustler Coupe seem like the most likely to come first. From a design standpoint, they are the most ordinary, and therefore the easiest to port quickly into production. Next would be the X-LANDER, since it’s based on an already-existing model (the Suzuki Jimmy). Finishing out with the “distant future” car would be the Crosshiker, since let’s face it – we’re never going to get a panoramic roof.

Of course, that’s just one writer’s opinion… Feel free to express yours in the comments below.