Suzuki targets fleet growth with new Swift and first fully electric car

Suzuki has traditionally been a been a heavily retail sector focused brand, with its range of small cars and SUVs finding a loyal customer base among private buyers.

This is reflected in the SMMT’s registration’s figures from 2023: of the brand’s 26,574 sales, just 4,814 were true fleet, with 7,642 going into Motability.

However, following the introduction of new models and initiatives, the manufacturer is now targeting growth among fleets.

“We know traditionally we’ve been one of the smaller players in the market and perhaps one of the reasons for that is because we are seen as a small car specialist and therefore maybe less appealing in a market dominated by larger vehicles,” says Dale Wyatt, director automobile at Suzuki GB, which was a finalist in the Most Improved Fleet Manufacturer category at this year's Fleet News Awards.

“But with our current range and with what we have planned for the future, we are able to pivot more towards fleet.

“The lines between retail and fleet are becoming blurred. It’s becoming less about sectors and more about channels, and finding ways to deliver bespoke mobility solutions. Whether that is contract hire, company car or salary sacrifice, the game has changed.”

Two major factors have led to Suzuki’s growing focus on the fleet sector: the state of the new car market and its current and upcoming vehicles.

Its range of cars – Ignis, Swift, Vitara, Swace, S-Cross and Across – all offer hybrid powertrains, whether these are mild, full or plug-in.

Four of these vehicles – Swift, Swace, S-Cross and Across – will be available to drive at this week's Company Car in Action arrive and drive event, which takes place at Millbrook Proving Ground on June 12 and 13.

“There’s no shying away from the fact that retail is our key focus, but what we’re seeing now is a change in the market in terms of retail volumes potentially slowing down a little bit; there’s still a cost of living crisis, the General Election is coming up and so forth,” adds Lee Giddings, national fleet sales manager at Suzuki GB.

“Whereas in fleet you tend to have more stability because people need to renew their cars.

“We’re also seeing our product range is leaning towards fleet customers. With EV product coming, that’s really going to be the key driver to us pushing on to another level.”

Suzuki to launch first BEV next year

Suzuki will launch it first BEV – the eVX – in the UK next year, and by 2030 this will be joined by four more. The brand anticipates that by 2030, 80% of its UK registrations will be electric.

“If you’d asked me, say, three years ago if I would have liked an EV, I’d have bitten your arm off,” says Giddings.

“But now we’ve seen the issues where EVs have had massive drops in their residual values and from a customer demand perspective, I don’t think there’s a need for us to have one right now.

“We believe the more EVs that come on to the market, the more demand will increase for conventional hybrids because there’ll be fewer of them.

“This will see their RVs improve as more people will want them: we saw it with diesel cars when they started to disappear.

“Obviously there is only a period of time for that. Over the next 12 months we will probably start to see price parity between hybrids and EVs, and that’s when it will become a little bit more challenging for hybrid products, but by then we’ll start to have our EVs.”

Giddings says they will also allow Suzuki to increase its presence in the salary sacrifice sector, a channel which is “hugely important for us”.

Opportunities for new Swift

The latest addition to the Suzuki range is the new Swift supermini, launched earlier this year, and the brand sees this as offering a huge opportunity for growth.

As well as offering improved quality, an impressive level of standard equipment and value, the manufacturer says this is well placed to take advantage of certain market conditions – primarily the withdrawal of rival models from the sector.

“The Fiesta is the most well-known one and has been the best-selling car in that sector for a long time now, but other product such as the Nissan Micra and Kia Rio have also disappeared,” says Wyatt.

“At the same time, when new cars are coming, they are not always but often electric as well. Our competitors are also very focused on switching their attention on to more profitable SUVs and the need to fulfil EV legislation.”

The result of this is the supermini segment is becoming smaller in terms of choice, but not demand, he adds.

“From our research, we know drivers don’t want to compromise: they still want the same thing, which is a compact hatchback with an internal combustion engine. The willingness to switch into an SUV or EV is not there yet,” says Wyatt.

“If you put those factors together, new Swift shouts as an opportunity for us. There is a lot of potential there.”

Suzuki says the decision by other manufacturers to exit the sector means around 250,000 drivers of those superminis on the roads today will be unable to buy the same model new in the next few years, so will be looking to move to different brands.

“That’s the scale of the opportunity we are looking at,” says Wyatt. “With the previous Swift that we introduced in 2017, we averaged about 9,500 sales across all channels each year.

“With new Swift, the ambition is 12,000 a year across all channels, including retail, fleet and Motability.”

Giddings adds: “There’s not going to be any issues hitting that number. From a fleet perspective, it’s started unbelievably well. It’s well beyond our expectations.”

Raising awareness

To raise awareness of the brand’s range to both fleet organisations and company car drivers, Suzuki is attending events such as the NAPFM Emergency Fleet Exhibition in Telford in July where it will be exhibiting its bluelight offering and Company Car in Action, as well as organising its own activities such as a recent Brand Immersion Day and Suzuki Fleet Day.

“We’re trying to get out and push the product in front of as many leasing companies as we can,” says Giddings. “They’re our primary focus, but we’re also seeing a lot of success in the public sector as well.”

As part of the brand’s commitment to increasing its fleet business, the company is also expanding its fleet team: it is currently recruiting for a contract and leasing manager for the north.

It has also introduced a fleet sales charter, a national fleet servicing programme and a fleet mystery shop for the dealer network.

Across its 140-strong dealer network it currently has a designated fleet network of 35 dealers nationwide, and is looking to grow this as well as ensure all its sites are capable of dealing with standard fleet requests.

“There’s no channel we disregard,” says Giddings. “We don’t do massive amounts of rental, and what we do with any rental company is ensure the vehicles come back into our network to protect their RVs.

“The focus for us over the 12 months is to drive towards our EVs, but at the same time managing the volume that we’ve got in terms of hybrid product and the launch of new Swift.

“It’s an exciting time for us.”