SUZUKI

The Japanese manufacturer is out of the biggest automotive market on the planet

In a statement to the press, Suzuki said that it will no longer have its own representation in China, transferring its operation in the world's largest car market to the local company Chongqing Changan Automobile, which will ensure the production of some models under of the negotiated license.This is not the first time that the Japanese manufacturer has opted out of important markets. Six years ago, Suzuki decided to withdraw from the United States, a country to which it has not yet returned. Before that, in 2003, the manufacturer of Hamamatsu left Brazil, a market that only came back five years later and where now its representation is in charge of the group HPE.At the origin of the decision now announced is the mismatch of the range to the Chinese market, as Suzuki's portfolio consists essentially of compact, models that are far from picking the preference of local consumers, with the demand to fall mostly in large automobiles . Proposals such as Ignis or Swift do not make any sense for those bands, when Vitara itself - which is the largest model marketed by the brand in China - falls short of being "big", given the alternatives offered by the competition.To get an idea, going back 15 years, 35% of sales on Chinese soil were for small vehicles. The problem is that this "slice" fell to 6.7% in 2017. Faced with the mismatch of its range in the face of the demand trend, Suzuki prefers to leave behind 25 years of direct presence in the Chinese market, to focus on India, country where it is a sales leader.



Simone Carvalho, de Portugal