When it comes to the Suzuki Swift, I believe that everyone here will not feel strange, with the Swift model, it supported the "half" of Suzuki's entire brand sales, and once posed a big threat to Honda Fit, Volkswagen Polo and Toyota Vios.
Although Suzuki has been mixed in China and is a household name, unfortunately after 2012, with the sharp decline in Suzuki sales, Swift has also been affected to a certain extent, and gradually this best-selling model has faded out of people's sights, and finally in 2018, Suzuki announced that its trip to China had come to an end, and Swift was officially discontinued.
Although Suzuki has "lost" the domestic market for many years, the Suzuki Swift model still maintains a good popularity in China, after all, its excellent reputation has left a deep impression on consumers, and fans' recognition of this brand model has not declined.
A few days ago, the new generation of Swift real car was photographed by overseas media in testing, which undoubtedly made Swift fans excited.
Is the new generation of swifts entering the domestic market?
For this problem, Brother Cylinder feels that the possibility is not small.
Because Suzuki and Toyota have reached a cooperation intention and will rely on Toyota's network to sell in China, it means that the new car may appear in the field of vision of the Chinese people in the form of an OEM Toyota label.
However, no matter which way it finally returns to the domestic market, I believe it is an exciting good news for fans and friends, and this car is still the "old friend" we are familiar with.
According to overseas media, the fourth generation of the Suzuki Swift model is based on the Heartect platform, and the overall styling design is more refined and sporty than the current model, and the safety standards have been improved. It is worth noting that the new car is expected to be officially announced in 2023 and officially launched for sale in the third quarter.
Combined with the renderings and exposed road test spy photos, you can see that the overall appearance of the new car is "still that formula", the exterior styling continues the design language of the previous generation, but in the details have been optimized and upgraded, you can see that the front face of the new generation of Swift adopts a new shape of the grille, and the engine compartment cover is a new mussel shell design, which maintains the consistent styling style of the Suzuki Swift car series as a whole.
As a small car of Suzuki Swift, the whole car looks relatively compact, the posture of the new car is still very low, and even looks a bit like the MINI model, it is worth mentioning that the new generation of Swift has been adjusted in design, the position of the rear door handle has returned to the traditional installation method, and the new car on the tail has also been redesigned, the design of the taillights is wider, adding a lot of sportiness.
Although the new generation of Suzuki Swift power information has not yet been exposed, it is reported that the new car will be equipped with a 1.5-liter naturally aspirated engine codenamed K15C + Toyota's hybrid system composed of a powertrain, the gearbox is a 6-speed ASG automatic transmission, combined with the description in the text, Suzuki's intention to cooperate with Toyota is obvious, and there is a high chance of re-entering the domestic market in the future and hitting the small car market again.
With Toyota's blessing, can the Suzuki Swift still leverage the small car market?
Suzuki is obviously prepared for the use of Toyota hybrid technology this time, but in the current domestic automobile market environment, does Suzuki still have a chance?
Brother Cylinder feels that Suzuki's competitiveness is not as good as before, even if it returns to the domestic market, the road ahead is full of thorns.
First of all, it can be seen that today's domestic market has undergone earth-shaking changes, and after the rise of independent brands, the highlight status of joint venture models no longer exists. Especially in the small hatchback market, there are only a few people who have performed well in sales at present, such as Toyota's Yaris, Honda's Fit, Volkswagen's Golf, and Nissan's Tida.
Secondly, under the budget of about 100,000 yuan, consumers' car purchase choices are not only joint venture brands, in recent years, independent brands have born many competitive model choices within this price budget, and the launch of 1.5T fuel, hybrid, and pure electric models can be described as robbing a lot of share of joint venture brands.
Moreover, if you really like to choose a hatchback small car consumers, the same price has BYD Dolphin, Ora good cat, etc., the same they also have a small body, for work attendance is still very convenient, key domestic new energy vehicle vehicle system and intelligence, Suzuki Swift can be described as far from it, and dolphin such models can also enjoy the policy of new energy indicators, in fairness, consumers will ultimately choose whom.
Finally, it falls on the issue of price. In 2014, Suzuki's second-generation swift was introduced through import channels, the price at that time was 178,800-188,800 yuan, and this is still the guide price, if you raise the price of the new swift according to Toyota's marketing methods, do you guess it will reach 200,000? I believe that at that time, will everyone choose to pay for feelings, or will they choose a more comfortable B-class car?
In general, if the Suzuki Swift can return to the domestic market, the probability is that it will be the end of "thunder and rain", although the call for this car on the Internet is very high, but if you want to return smoothly, Suzuki must be prepared for the next competitive pressure.
Fuel vehicles in the 100,000 yuan range are being replaced
In fact, in addition to the decline in the competitiveness of the Suzuki Swift, now under the impact of new energy, the market share of 100,000-level fuel vehicles has gradually been eroded by pure electric models.
From the recently announced September sales results, it can be seen that in the range of 100,000 levels, whether it is in the field of mini cars or small cars, the proportion of pure fuel vehicles is getting smaller and smaller, followed by the majority of new energy models, specifically see that on the list of car emperors, the top five models three cars are new energy models, Honda Fit and Toyota's dazzling, which were originally on this list for many years, have long been gone.
The BYD Dolphin ranked first with sales of more than 20,000, a gap of more than 10,000 vehicles from Honda Fit. It is certain that with the advent of the new energy era, more and more car companies have begun to embrace electrification, and more car companies will definitely release small pure electric models in the future, and this market will gradually be further divided by new energy vehicles in the future.
Speaking of this, Brother Cylinder couldn't help but think of what He Xiaopeng said at the Xpeng Automobile Super Replenishment Conference in August: "Fuel vehicles below 100,000 yuan will be quickly replaced by pure electric vehicles." In fact, this sentence is also very understandable, in this budget space, pure electric models are more suitable for consumers' car needs than fuel vehicles.
For example, the fuel consumption of Honda Fit 100 kilometers is about 5~7 liters, which is about 0.5 yuan when converted to fuel money, but compared to pure electric models, if there is a charging pile at home, the cost per kilometer is only a few cents.
Coupled with pure electric models in terms of maintenance, it basically does not cost too much money; The key is in terms of intelligence, in this price of the joint venture, the vehicle system can be described as "Nokia", replaced by pure electric models, is a normal thing.
It is conceivable that the small car market in the 100,000-level range is basically divided up by independent brands. At this moment, if Suzuki chooses to return to the domestic market, it will face a "big battle" with its own brands to compete for their rivers and mountains.
summary
It is undeniable that the Suzuki Swift carries the sentiment of several generations in the Chinese market, and it is indeed a very classic model. But now that the domestic market can be described as "full of masters", and the momentum is getting stronger and stronger, after Suzuki returns to the domestic market, will you really pay for this emotional hatchback?