Why Did Suzuki Withdraw from China Back Then?
1 Answers
Suzuki's reasons for withdrawing from China: 1. Suzuki's focus on small cars: Suzuki entered the Chinese market in 1993 and successively established cooperative intentions with Chang'an and Changhe. The Alto launched by Suzuki became a hit at the time, and the brand also achieved considerable success in some small car segments. This stemmed from Suzuki's research direction, as the company specialized in the development of small cars. However, from the perspective of market trends, this did not align with the changes in China's automotive market. With the continuous improvement of China's economic level and evolving consumer preferences, domestic consumers increasingly favored larger vehicles. The long-standing consumption concept of "bigger is better" meant that Suzuki's judgment of the Chinese market was flawed. 2. Suzuki's vehicle configurations: The cars produced by Suzuki were not cheap, but compared to small cars from other brands, their configurations were not particularly high, showing insufficient sincerity. It’s understandable that their sales were relatively dismal. 3. Government policies: In April 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology introduced new management measures, which explicitly stipulated that every automaker, regardless of the number of fuel vehicles produced annually, must manufacture new energy vehicles according to a certain ratio. Under this requirement, Suzuki—whether for domestic or imported models—struggled to find a suitable new energy vehicle model.
