A 34% YoY sales rise made Suzuki the UK’s fastest growing top 20 brand in H1. Can that pace of expansion be sustained? Glenn Brooks, back from the media launch of the facelifted Swift, shares new knowledge of the company’s future model plans.
As we reported recently, Suzuki sales rocketed to over 17,000 units in the first six months of 2013. July was another a good month with 1,739 cars sold, taking the tally for the year to 18,859. That’s almost 4,700 more than for January to July 2012.
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According to the SMMT’s data, Suzuki is therefore outselling Mazda (17,838) and just 195 units behind Volvo. The reason can’t be anything to do with fresh products as the last time the Japanese brand launched a new model here was back in 2010.
So what’s behind the sales surge? In short, the company is especially good at targetting value-hunting private buyers. Suzuki owners tend to be loyal to the brand too, and the Swift apparently has the best conversion rate from test drive to sale, which is said to be an impressive 63 percent.
Fleet sales are small compared to rivals but the company now intends to remedy that with a new push, led by the updated Swift.
Launched in the UK and other European markets in the fourth quarter of 2010, the current generation model is manufactured for this region by Magyar Suzuki at its Esztergom plant, while factories in Japan (Kosai), Thailand (Rayong) and India (Manesar A plant) also build it. Maruti sold more than 340,000 Swifts last year, easily enough to make it India’s best selling car.
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By GlobalDataThe current model looks remarkably similar to the previous Swift but is in fact 90mm longer. The older car is still made by both China’s Changan Suzuki JV (Chongqing) and Maruti Suzuki (Gurgaon).
The initial engine range for Europe consisted of a 1.2-litre petrol, with Fiat Powertrain Technology’s 1,248cc turbo diesel (badged as a 1.3) added from early 2011. A 1.6-litre petrol engine had its global debut in the Swift Sport which premiered at the Frankfurt motor show in September 2011. This three-door hatchback went on sale across Europe from late 2011.
The Swift continues to be the brand’s most important global model. Having said that, the Japanese-made model was a money loser in the US and it, and the brand, are no more in that market. This was mostly due to what was for years an unfavourable yen-dollar exchange rate.
American Suzuki announced its intention to cease selling cars and light trucks last November. Just four months later, the Canadian importer announced that the country’s 2014 model year would be its last. Once the planned phase out is completed next spring, Mexico will be the brand’s sole market in the NAFTA region.
North America was never a major region for Suzuki sales so the withdrawal from the US and Canada won’t have too much of an impact on the company’s overall performance. In fact, last fiscal was a great one, with global production surging by 103% YoY, to 2,878,435, the first rise for two financial years. For the year ending 31 March 2014, Suzuki cautiously stated in a 24 April 2013 media release that it foresaw its global sales “…up year-on-year in both Japan and overseas”.
Sales in the Europe defined by ACEA’s number crunchers look like being somewhere north of 150,000 vehicles this year, using the total for calendar H1 as my indicative guide. At 77,224, that’s close to twice as many as Mitsubishi Motors managed by the year’s mid point, almost 4,000 more than Mazda and only around 800 fewer than Honda Motor Europe.
Esztergom is key to Suzuki Motor Europe’s chances of even greater success than it has been having, albeit in an overall market that remains weak in some places. One of the signs that Magyar Suzuki is being given more power by HQ in Japan is the decision to add production of 4×4 Swifts to the line there. Until now, only the Germans and Swiss were offered these variants and those cars were sourced from Japan.
The all-wheel drive system is the main technical news for the revised model range which is being rolled out across European markets right now. The car itself has come in for a styling freshening, as you’d expect after three years of production, and I was told by the model’s UK market product manager that we won’t be seeing a replacement model until “after 2016”. The old model lasted six years so Suzuki may well be moving to the seven-plus year lifecycles increasingly favoured by many European manufacturers, Volkswagen being the most obvious example.
Another addition to the updated Swift line-up is a five-door Sport, which costs GBP500 more than the GBP13,749 three-door. The 136PS 1.6-litre (petrol) engine is unchanged and the standard spec gains just three new items: the high-mounted stop lamp is now illuminated by LEDs, the driver’s window has an auto-up function and the rear seat accomodates three rather than two passengers. Equipment levels aleady extended to automatic A/C, front fog lamps, cruise control, bluetooth connectivity, HID headlamps with wash, and dark glass for the rear windows.
As for how the car drives, you immediately notice how light it feels compared to some of the faster but lardier rivals in the B segment. Kerb weight is quoted as 1,045kg and the benefits to steering feel and body roll, not to mention fuel economy (Combined: 44.1mpg) are obvious. It’s down almost 50 horsepower on arguably the best car in this class, the 180PS turbocharged Fiesta ST, but you’re also saving a whopping GBP3,000 if you go for the Swift Sport, plus you have the option of rear doors, which Ford doesn’t offer in European market versions of the ST.
At around 1,200 units per annum, sales of the Sport currently represent roughly 10 percent of UK market Swift sales so the addition of the extra bodystyle should prove a handy boost to profits generated by this model series, the brand’s best seller.
The importer readily admits that this B segment hatchback has a few shortcomings, the main one being the boot which has a mere 211 cubic litres of capacity, or 512 with the seats folded. The car is a bit shorter than most rivals but that’s mainly due to minimal overhang at the rear. The wheelbase is 2,430mm and that allows decent legroom in the front but it is a bit tight in the back for anyone over average height.
Various criticisms of the outgoing car from owners have been addressed and some of them are simple, such as a parcel shelf which now lifts with the tailgate. The diesel is now even more economical, returning 72.4mpg on the Combined cycle, while the figure for Extra Urban is 83.0. The CO2 average is also improved to just 101g/km.
The ‘DDiS’ diesel is offered in just one variant, a front-wheel drive five-door in top-spec SV4 trim, available only as a five-speed manual. If you want a Swift automatic, it’s also sold only as an SZ4 five-door and the gearbox has four speeds. Most buyers are expected to choose the 1.2 petrol SZ3 five-door, priced at GBP12,619 but there is a promotion running until the end of September, which means the Swift range starts at GB8,999, for which you get the petrol three-door SZ2.
The new 4×4 cars come only in five-door form with the 94PS (69kW) 1.2-litre petrol engine. As the system adds 65kg, average fuel consumption is roughly 5mpg worse (51.3mpg on the Combined cycle and CO2 of 126g/km versus 56.5mpg and 116g/km).
Suzuki doesn’t crow about this fact in its advertising but the Swift’s adult occupancy score of 94% in EuroNCAP’s crash tests is a class best. It also has a five stars rating. There’s more information on all this here, at EuroNCAP’s website.
Suzuki shared some basic future product information on the launch, but I also managed to corner one of its executives who answered some of my questions. Here’s what I learned:
- no plans to replace the Kizashi, in the UK at least
- a successor for the Jimny is not in the mid-term product plan (up to 2016)
- around 1,000 units of the now 15 year-old Jimny are sold here per annum
- the Esztergom-built SX4 S-Cross will be on sale in the UK from September
- the coming of the S-Cross will not mean an end for Grand Vitara production
- the eight year-old Grand Vitara remains popular in Russia and the UK
- SX4 production ends at Esztergom in December
- build of the Fiat Sedici is also due to cease by year-end
- an A-segment model to replace the Alto will arrive in Europe in 2014
- a rival for the Ford EcoSport comes to European markets in 2015
- a B segment hatchback is due in 2016 but this won’t be a new Swift
