After its split with erstwhile partner TVS, Suzuki ventured back in India as a completely Suzuki Japan owned entity in 2004 and started manufacturing and selling its products from 2006. However, things have just not rocketed for them till now. They have been kept limited to a small player in the Indian market.
However, this is where Suzuki is planning to go aggressive. They have already unveiled their premium 125cc scooter Swish 125 and launched it a few days back. The other product that was unveiled at the Auto Expo was the mass-market 110cc motorcycle, Hayate. Suzuki plans to launch it very soon and have hired the famous Bollywood star Salman Khan to endorse the brand.
Currently, Suzuki has 150cc GS150R and 125cc Slingshot in the motorcycle segment and Access and Swish125 in the scooters segment. Over 80 percent of its total sales were from scooters last financial year. With the launch of entry level motorcycles, company wants to increase there current breakup to 50 percent for both the segments.
Company has also hinted at similar products like Hayate. Suzuki expects to sell around 10,000 units of the latest 110cc offering per month, double then their current best-seller Slingshot.
To tap growth potential, Suzuki has also laid the foundation of its second plant in India at Rohtak, Haryana. Currently, Suzuki manufactures motorcycles at their Gurgaon plant at which they intend to increase capacity to 5.40 lakh units by 2014. Also, the new Rohtak plant would add 2 million units.
By,
Saad Khan
Team BikeAdvice