Gasgoo.com (Shanghai July 14) - While Japanese automotive brands have seen their Chinese sales beginning to recover somewhat this year, Suzuki has still been suffering negative sales growth. According to recent sales statistics, both of Suzuki’s joint ventures in the country have had their sales decrease, with no single Suzuki model managing to achieve positive sales growth this year. Changan Suzuki’s cumulative sales for the first five months of the year totaled 58,900 units, while Changhe Suzuki’s sales for the same time period totaled 21,890 units. The two sales figures represented negative sales growth rates of 22.28% and 25.19%, respectively.
Suzuki, which has already winded down its automobile sales in the US and has limited operations in Europe, has been looking to benefit from the emerging Chinese market. However, with the Chinese market veering away from small cars and consumer preferences changing, Suzuki has suffered from a lack of product diversity that is appealing to Chinese tastes.
Suzuki has attributed its poor performance in China due to a sharp decline in the sales of its flagship model, the Alto, as well as its new Alivio failing to meet high expectations. Suzuki only sells small cars in China, with only the Alto managing to achieve a somewhat respectable sales results.
In response to decreasing returns, Changan Suzuki announced a new project to expand its operations. The joint venture plans to introduce at least five new models by 2018 with the aim of achieving annual production and sales volumes of 500,000 units.
However despite this new policy, Suzuki has fallen behind fellow Japanese manufacturers. By not releasing new models, Suzuki has suffered severely. Things haven’t changed in 2015, with no new Suzuki models released in the country so far this year.
