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I have one but its my first electric car and so I cant really say if its worth it as having it is all I have known. Lots of people say they are suited to countries that have a colder climate. I took a view it was better to have than not to have but others will say it’s a waste of money and weight. I would love to wax lyrical about mine but, like I say, I have no comparison.
2024 Skoda Enyaq estate- 85x Sportline plus in Race Blue. Extras: Supernova 21 inch wheels, Maxx Pack, Transport Pack, Heat Pump and Pano Sunroof.
Ordered 31/10/23, Delivery 27/3/24I have one, to be honest I haven’t noticed any difference but I generally do shorter distances. Generally a heat pump comes into its own on longer distances.
I’d normally say no, you won’t get your money back, but £500 is half price compared to what other manufacturers charge for an heat pump. The Suzuki e-Vitara is essentially a Toyota Urban Cruiser and built by Toyota, who are generally pretty good when it comes to stuff like this and will help to warm the interior more efficiently in the colder months. @MFillingham
The heatpump I believe is standard on the bigger battery?
Hi all has anyone experience of heat pumps. Looking at Vauxhall frontera ev gs and suzuki vitara e with extended battery. Question is vitara has heat pump but is £500 more ap. Is it worth paying will the benefits out weigh the cost. Thanks
The Suzuki every time even just for reliability, the Suzuki/Toyota EV system is more energy efficient, our Suzuki Across has a heat pump we see 60 miles in EV mode in the summer and 45 miles in the winter.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
It’s not worth the extra money as we don’t get it cold enough for long enough to get any real benefit.
If you live in a very cold area (north east coast of Scotland) and plan to do a lot of miles in the winter then you might break even at £500 🤷♂️ but in comparing the 2 cars a heat pump would be at the bottom of my wanted list.
Have you test driven both and like them equally? How many miles do you tend to do? Do you do many long journeys?
It’s not worth the extra money as we don’t get it cold enough for long enough to get any real benefit. If you live in a very cold area (north east coast of Scotland) and plan to do a lot of miles in the winter then you might break even at £500
but in comparing the 2 cars a heat pump would be at the bottom of my wanted list.Having looked on Suzuki’s website, I believe we have all being reading into @paulnles question wrong , by focusing on the heatpump costing £500. This is not the case, as the Suzuki eVitara comes with a heatpump as standard factory fit, rather than a £500 option i.e the real difference is, the eVitara AP is £500 more than Frontera, but the eVitara comes standard with an heatpump, similar to how the Kona does to the competition.
Given Stellantis EV’s have had a pounding for real world range, I would say the eVitara is a better choice, regardless of whether it come with heatpump or not. There’s also the case @Oscarmax points out, Suzuki/Toyota are far more reliable and Toyota have had years of experience, when it comes to electriness and heatpumps in hybrids and the eVitara is just a Toyota and built by Toyota at the end of the day.
My mum, perhaps preconditions her Kona too often before going outand given it’s done whils’t no on charge, the heatpump has less of an effect on the cars battery, than if her car came without one.
EV database figures
Frontera 54kW
https://ev-database.org/uk/car/3229/Vauxhall-Frontera-Electric-54-kWh
eVitara 61kW- unfortunately evdatabse on spec the 4wd dual motor AllGrip model, so take it the standard long range model will do 20+ miles more than quoted here.
https://ev-database.org/uk/car/3213/Suzuki-e-VITARA-61-kWh-4WD-AllGrip
Then take in to account what @Bandit said.
I would not take a Stellantis product, too many software and weird hardware issues, just go look at the eC3 forum, it’s the same car and software dressed up as a Vauxhall. Issues abound from frozen screens to weird drive failures. Bjorn Nyland had numerous issues inc. charging problems during his time testing the car.
The Suzuki eVitara ( rebadged Toyota Urban Cruiser) is new to market, however, Toyota has not had any issues with their ev’s other than their unrealistic mileage claims for the early bz4x models, subsequently sorted.
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Abercol apparently Toyota BZ4X were trying to be over protective to the vehicle battery, they offer an extendable 10 year warranty every time the vehicle is serviced by them and 15 years on the battery.
The way things are going with no more lease extensions longer than 6 months from the 16th December 2025 and the possibility of removal of VAT exemptions, I may consider buying used either a Toyota or Suzuki vehicle with safeguard the 10 year manufactures warranty.
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.
My Kona didn’t have a heat pump and I didn’t miss it tbh.
My scenic etech has it and I’d miss it.
The scenic etech does more miles but has a bigger battery so don’t know the effect of the heat pump on the range. What it does do is give nearly instant heat, within about 40 seconds I’m feeling heat when in the car, so much so that I’ve not been preconditioning as often as I did in the Kona.
That said I would not pay for it.
Ps the Kona seemed to take an age to heat up so I’m presuming it’s the heat pump in the scenic doing it.
I think it’s the wrong question. It’s comparing two different manufacturers, their models all based on one pretty irrelevant feature. I’ve not heard much about either car as they’re both relatively new but here’s my thoughts:
Frontera is a Stellantis car and doesn’t seem a particularly efficient shape. Expect the actual mileage to be a lot worse than you’re being given on WLTP. The ‘Extended Range’ is a joke, that’s all the way up to a 54kWh battery that’s 125 miles at motorway speed in winter, that’s not what I’d be calling extended range and worries me what the other achieves. If you’re planning on using that to see family at Christmas, look for a better car.
The E-Vitara is brand new, it seems well spec’d and looks like Toyota/Suzuki’s usual rugged identity. A 61kWh battery will give you better results, claimed 265 miles but expect 180 ish in winter. Standard range is only 49kWh and with that body shape, I’d not expect miracles for range.
I usually suggest a 60kWh battery minimum unless you want to stop every 2 hours for 40 minutes. The problem is smaller batteries usually come with lower charge rates, so still take the same sort of time to charge. Imagine how good they’ll be charging 50kWh at the rate that takes an Enyaq’s 82kWh to 80% in 35 minutes…
Now, as for the Heat Pump you’re saving 5% of the heater’s draw by using a heatpump. Even if you go hyper efficient and find one claiming 10% it’s still only the draw of the heater and in certain conditions you’ll get the best output. While the weather will change, you’d need the heater blasting forth for days on end in winter for 3 years to see any value from it but that’s not the comparison today. It’ll help with efficiency a little but I’d ask if you prefer the Suzuki over any Stellantis car before worrying about whether the heat pump will make a difference, there’s too many other variables that will also make a difference between the two, like motor size and efficiency, how well the battery is managed, airflow, tyre resistance, etc., I’m not sure comparing the two even resembles comparing eggs with eggs.
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I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
From my experience from going from a ev without a heatpump to having a heatpump for me it’s a massive improvement because my none heat pump car would take forever to get hot even then it was pretty awful and took a lot of my battery where’s now I don’t need it on for long periods of time because it heats up the cabin super quick and super hot! It’s crazy to think I went 3 years without proper heating in my car!
I tend to agree with a lot of what has been said – if you regularly do long journeys towards the end of your range and you live in the north of the UK possibly worth it – but I think as a generalisation the speed you can charge at when out and about is more important – my Elroq is 175 and is noticeably quicker and useful than the Kona I had previously – pre conditioning a car before a long journey for hot or cold conditions allows for low fan and a/c off – a/c saps power just about more than anything else – so heated seats is also worth considering.
It is a different way of thinking with an EV, but I have never regretted moving away from petrol !!
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