New era of success for Suzuki
Tuesday, February 28th, 20062005 was a memorable year for Suzuki Motor Corporation’s automobile business as completely new models were launched and global sales and production rose substantially.
New Swift – the first of many new products
The year began with the world launch of the Swift at the Geneva Motor Show. The first product from Suzuki’s new worldwide model development programme, the Swift was immediately widely acclaimed and admired throughout the world for its style, mechanical excellence and on road performance.
Seen by many as the outstanding supermini of 2005 it was soon winner of numerous awards in the various markets. In Japan, importantly, it won the 2006 RJC Car of the Year and the Special Achievement Award “Most Fun” in the Car of the Year (COTY) 2005-2006.
Four Suzuki factories – in Hungary, Japan, India, and China – had already produced 210,000 Swifts by the end of 2005.
New Grand Vitara, too
2005 also saw the unveiling of the all-new Grand Vitara, the second model in Suzuki’s new worldwide model strategy.
The latest generation Grand Vitara was also enthusiastically received in all of its markets and consequently annual sales plans have been revised and increased from 125,000 units to 180,000 units.
2.6 million units by 2010
In May, 2005, Suzuki announced a new medium term five-year business plan which has, as its main objective, the development of worldwide sales from the 1,890,000 units achieved in the year to March, 2005 to 2,600,000 units by March, 2010.
Primarily driven by the success of the new Swift and Grand Vitara, Suzuki’s sales surpassed 2,010,000 units in 2005, a 7% increase compared to the previous year and a significant step towards the goal of 2,600,000 units.
And 320,000 units in Europe by 2007
In 2005 in Europe Suzuki’s sales grew by 11% over the previous year to 265,000 passenger cars, of which 60,000 were Swifts.
As Suzuki enters 2006 its European sales network is being progressively strengthened and it expects a 17% increase to 310,000 units in the full year with the Corporation capturing a 2% market share, with sales of 320,000 units, in 2007.
Magyar Suzuki production to rise to 300,000
In order to assist with the achievement of these plans Magyar Suzuki Corporation, Hungary, which already manufactures Swift and Ignis for Europe will further increase its production volume from 137,000 units in 2005 to 170,000 units in 2006 and to 300,000 units in the near future.
The all new SX4 – the third all new world strategic model from Suzuki – which is unveiled at Geneva today [February 28, 2006] is also to be built at Magyar Suzuki.