Suzuki has assured its European customers with a promising comeback. Suzuki has been sluggish in trading its vehicles in Europe as the sales charts dipped by 13% compared to the previous year. The company has not been doing well in the European market for almost half a decade and managed to sell 2 lakh units throughout the continent. Suzuki posted its last profits in 2008 and has been struggling to maintain its momentum. The company earlier pulled out of US and Canada a year ago from the four-wheeler segment because of poor sales. Well it looked like Suzuki was haunted with the same even in the European market until it launched its new cars.
Suzuki came up with SX4 S-Cross and iV-4 concept cars that were recently unveiled at Geneva Motor Show and Frankfurt Motor Show respectively. The company planned the launch well; with both vehicles belonging to different segments. The SX4 S-Cross which recently rolled out of the Hungary Magyar plant will be having a front wheel drive (FWD) which is favourable for city driving. The S-Cross also received a 5 star Euro NCAP rating and would be the arch rival for the Nissan Qashqai in the European market.
The Suzuki iV-4 will be having All Wheel Drive (AWD) that would attract off-road enthusiasts and is expected to hit showrooms in 2015. The All Grip technology for the iV-4 will let it compete with the Renault Captur, Opel Mokka and Peugeot 2008. iV-4 is a European specific model and won’t be sold in other markets. Thus the chance of the vehicle being launched in India is slim to none. In 2014, the European market will also see the new Swift which comes with minimal changes in the interiors.
The company is positive about its sales and expects them to increase in the last quarter. With European market gaining the momentum we can say that it is a smart move by Suzuki to launch a car per year. The company expects to sell 3,00,000 units of the S-Cross and iV-4 by 2016. Well if Suzuki continues to carry out the same trend for some years then there is no doubt that we will be looking at some green lines on their sales as well as profit charts. Currently Suzuki’s majority sales come from its Indian subsidiary, Maruti Suzuki.
