- Powered by a 15bhp, 360cc engine
- Weighed just over 500kg
As Maruti Suzuki gets ready to launch the e Vitara, the brand’s very first electric vehicle, it’s worth reflecting on where it all began for Suzuki 70 years ago. Back in 1955, Michio Suzuki personally delivered a Suzulight, his very first production car to a local doctor who had previously been conducting his house calls on a bicycle.
Although Michio Suzuki had first started in business much earlier than that, dating back to March 1920, with the manufacture of textile looms. However, when there was a global decline in the cotton industry, Suzuki then decided to diversify into motorised transport with the introduction of its first motorcycle in 1953, and the first car two years later.
The Suzulight was a compact vehicle measuring less than 3 metres in length and weighing just over 500kg. It was powered by a 360cc, 15bhp, two-cylinder, two-stroke engine, which was the first of its type to ever be fitted to a car. It was also the first car in Japan to feature a front wheel drive/front engine layout, and was way ahead of its time with its independent coil spring suspension and rack and pinion steering. Production commenced in October 1955, with the initial production of three to four cars per month, but by early 1956, the monthly volume climbed to 30 units.
Michio Suzuki’s original ethos of producing lightweight vehicles lives on here in India with the original Maruti Suzuki ‘SS80’ 800 in the mid-1980s, and currently with cars like the Swift and the Ignis.
