After consecutive years of record UK sales Suzuki suffered a blip in registrations in 2015 with a fall of 7.9% to 34,437 sales.
Dale Wyatt, Suzuki’s UK Director Sales and Marketing told Journalists, “2015 was a year of consolidation for us with the Alto, Splash and Grand Vitara models coming to the end of their life cycles followed by our new Celerio City Car and the Vitara SUV coming on stream. But with the revised range in place and more new models to come we are really motoring again with a 27.7% increase in our sales for the first two months of this year and we have a target of 40,000 UK new car registrations in 2016.”
He added, “The new models will include another A-segment car and a small SUV, the S-Cross crossover C-segment range with 2WD and 4WD models will receive a facelift later this year and at the end of 2017 there will be a new Swift supermini sized range as well. In June this year we will also introduce the Indian built Baleno five door supermini sized hatchbacks, the most aerodynamic Suzuki ever, and I expect this range to achieve 4,000 UK sales in its first year. The Baleno will keep our customers wanting to move up in size from a Swift in the Suzuki family.”
To reach their record UK 40,000 sales target this year, even without taking into account the arrival of the new Baleno, the Swift range is expected to achieve 15,000 sales, the Swift Sport 1,200, the new Vitara SUV 10,000, the S-Cross crossover 5,600, the Celerio 7,000 and the long serving Jimny small SUV around 1,200 registrations.
Dale Wyatt added, “In the UK the Suzuki brand remains niche with a close family relationship between us, our dealers and their customers. It is a brand family, you belong, you feel valued and 63% of UK customers who test drive a Suzuki buy one. I am very proud of the fact that the Suzuki brand was voted the third most valued franchise in the recent UK National Dealers Franchise Survey.”
Although Suzuki, by their own admission, remain a niche brand in the UK on the global stage they are the 9th largest global car brand, they sold 3-million new cars globally last year and expect to reach a total of 3.4-million in 2019. In addition they sold 2.1-million motorcycles last year. They are the third largest manufacturer in Japan, they build cars in Japan, Hungary and India and under their Maruti-Suzuki partnership they hold a 48% share of the 2.0-million annual new car market in India.
