SINGAPORE – For nearly four decades, the Suzuki Vitara served as the poor man’s Jeep. It was angular and rugged, and often came with rear-wheel or all-wheel drive. Modified variants even raced in the gruelling Dakar Rally.

The battery-powered eVitara is nothing like its forebears. The new model is an urbane front-wheel drive which is unlikely to get its tyres muddy. It looks nothing like the Vitara of old, although it shares some stylistic similarity with the fourth-generation car.

The eVitara is built on an electric vehicle platform co-developed with Toyota. Toyota’s version of the car is the Urban Cruiser. Both cars are built at Suzuki’s plant in Gujarat, India.

The eVitara is compact, measuring 4,275mm long, 1,800mm wide and 1,635mm tall with a 2,700mm wheelbase and a 1,700kg kerb weight. Despite that, interior space is adequate. The car seats five adults fairly comfortably, with legroom and headroom to spare for those in the second row.

The car’s flat floor and relatively high ceiling contribute to its spaciousness. It is more versatile than most cars in its segment. Its rear seats can slide forward to free up space in the boot. Likewise, the angle of the rear seat backs can be adjusted.

If the rear seats are configured to maximise passenger comfort, the boot has only 238 litres of stowage. If the seats are moved forward and the angle of the backrests are at their most upright, stowage capacity rises to 310 litres. If you need to carry bulkier items, the seats can be collapsed like in most other cars.

Even with four occupants, the car will accommodate one golf bag when the middle rear seat is collapsed to create an aperture not unlike the ski pass-throughs found in some European models.