Even though there is the word “motorcycle” in the registered company name, “Suzuki Motorcycle India”, the motorcycle market has not quite been its forte, but the scooter segment has all their attention. The Japanese manufacturer has announced that out of six launches this year, four will be scooters.
Four scooters in a year is quite a big number, considering the fact that Suzuki has launched just three scooters in the last couple of years with the latest being the Let's. Out of four scooters, two are expected to be variants of the Swish and the Access scooters. We believe it will be more of a facelift and less of “limited” edition. The remaining two scooters may be based on their new 110cc platform. The Let's sits at the base level of this segment and competes with the likes of the Honda Activa i. A premium variant does make sense that will compete with the leaders like the Honda Activa, Hero Maesto and TVS Jupiter.
Suzuki India currently sells around 3.5 lakh scooters a year, taking their overall scooter market share to 12 per cent. It wants to improve this number over the next few months and hence, the four scooter launches. The top honcho of the company has announced that they will stick to the 100-125cc segment as majority of the customers are there and will not be launching any 150cc scooters anytime soon.
We feel this is a very interesting, yet big move by the company. Scooters are the fastest growing two-wheeler segment and that is why each and every manufacturer except Bajaj, wants to make its presence felt. But too many products will just over crowd the segment, just like the entry-level 110cc motorcycle segment.
