For the first time ever, Suzuki is in third place in the Japanese domestic market behind Toyota and Nissan, outselling Honda – for sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles combined.
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Suzuki is trumpeting the figures compiled by financial daily Nikkei Shimbun, which show that between January and October 2006, it notched up 587,874 sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles behind Toyota (1,417,984) and Nissan (670,096) and ahead of Honda (581,249) and Daihatsu (524,381).
The newspaper also predicted that the company will maintain this position for the full year.
Success both at home and abroad has prompted Suzuki to expand output. Its new Sagara facility in Japan will commence operation in late 2008 with capacity of 240,000 compact vehicles, while expansion at its plants in Hungary, India and Pakistan announced earlier this year will add a further 530,000 units.
Next year the automaker will launch a compact MPV (minivan) based on the Splash concept shown at the recent Paris motor show.
