JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Suzuki Auto SA sold 2102 new vehicles in December 2021 to, the company says, scored a passenger vehicle market share of 8.18% with deliveries of 27 583 new units.
”It’s our best year yet,” the company’s brand marketing manager Brandon Carpenter told The Corner. ”We also reported five dealer sales records and four monthly market share records. Indeed, since September 2021, nearly one in every 10 passenger vehicles sold was a Suzuki.”
GETTING CLOSE TO 10% OF MARKET
The brand also set sales and market-share records in its Marine division; Suzuki Motorcycles dominated the hyperbike segment in 2021 with the Hayabusa selling previously unheard-of numbers in the fourth quarter.
Naamsa (automotive business council) reported that the total passenger vehicle market improved by 23.3% over the lockdown-restricted market of 2020. Of this, Suzuki accounted for an average of 8.8% of all passenger vehicle sales and almost six percent of the total vehicle market.
Naamsa’s sales statistics reveal that Suzuki reached an average market share of 9.41% in the last quarter, which points to further growth and the potential to reach even greater heights through 2022.
100 000 CUSTOMERS IN 2021
Henno Havenga, Suzuki Auto SA’s dealer sales manager, told The Corner: “2021 was filled with many challenges that troubled all automakers – among them significant delays at SA’s main ports which caused a shortage of vehicles, and other lockdown restrictions.
“Despite this, the Suzuki team worked hard to source as many vehicles as possible to support our dealer network.”
2021 – A YEAR OF RECORDS
Other records for Suzuki Auto and its dealers during 2021… The first was set in February, the month that Suzuki introduced the Vitara Brezza. The brand sold 2142 new vehicles and welcomed its 100 000th customer. Of that total, 1626 vehicles were sold by the dealer network the most yet.
Whatever, the February record was broken the following month with 2397 sales and the dealer network recorded 1962 units, nearly 82% of all Suzuki vehicles sold. That led to February and March garnering an overall market share of 8.56%.
SEARCH MORE SUZUKI FEATURES AMONG OUR 3000+ ARTICLES
A third sales record came in August – 2470 units – to, the company reported, make the brand fifth best in SA.
September proved to be the brand’s best month of the year when at the Simola
Hillclimb as partner to several Suzuki-powered sport cars a Suzuki-powered car won the Classic Car race and came 10th in the overall ‘King of the Hill’ competition.
The month also saw the brand crack 3000 sales – 3134 Suzuki cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles were delivered – nearly double that of July 2019 which saw 1577. Passenger market share hit 10.33%.
STILL IN THE THOUSANDS
October belonged to Suzuki’s dealer network, which has since grown to 75. The brand sold 2593 vehicles, 2083 of them through dealers – another record for the network.
In November, Suzuki nearly again surpassed 3000 sales, just short of the of best-yet – at 2097. Havenga told The Corner: ”2021 was definitely Suzuki’s year. We ended November with a passenger vehicle market share of more than 10% and a dealer network larger, or healthier.
AND MOTORCYCLE SALES…?
Chris Kuun, head of motorcycle marketing, told The Corner: ”We delivered 65 in the first three months – a then unheard-of number for a hypersport bike costing more than R300 000.”
In total, Suzuki sold 1339 new motorcycles through 2021. Already ordered for 2022 are more Hayabusas and the GSX-S1000 and GSX-S1000GT planned for introduction in first-quarter 2022.”
Suzuki Marine sold 128 outboard motors ahead of the December holiday – about 40% more than the previous year-end.
Carman's Corner 