There's Gonna Be A Super Cute Suzuki Jimny Pickup, And A Hybrid Too

Suzuki revealed this Jimny pickup concept at the 2018 Tokyo Auto SalonPhoto: Suzuki

Here in the U.S., the only things you can buy from Suzuki are motorcycles, ATVs and boats. The automaker pulled out of the U.S. car market years ago, but the rest of the world still gets to enjoy a lot of the Suzuki’s great products like the tiny, adorable Jimny off-roader. According to a recent report, the Jimny is proving so popular that Suzuki is looking to expand the Jimny’s lineup with more variants, including a pickup truck and a hybrid.

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Australia’s CarSales reports the Jimny is so popular in the land Down Under that customers are facing long wait times for their vehicle deliveries. Suzuki picked up on this popularity and wants to expand the Jimny’s lineup beyond its current three-door and five-door variants:

Along with an EV version of the Jimny that’s expected to arrive by 2030 (one of five new battery-electric Suzukis likely to be revealed by the end of this decade) and a hybrid version due before then, Suzuki is still considering a Jimny ute for global release – perhaps reprising the Mighty Boy name.

At the recent debut of the new Swift, CarSales asked Suzuki Australia’s General Manager Michael Pachota about whether or not a Jimny pickup was in the works. His answer was, “The project, I would say, is not dead.” Back in 2018, Suzuki showed the amazing Jimny Sierra Pickup Style concept at the Tokyo Auto Salon, and it could easily translate to a production design.

Jimny sales are up 50 percent in Australia this year, and CarSales says there’s a six-to-eight-month wait time for them at dealers. Suzuki could easily replicate this success here in the U.S., as the market for cheap, small off-roaders is pretty much non-existent. Bringing the Jimny to America could end up starting a cheap off-road arms race, but it’s never likely to pass our strict crash-test regulations.