Suzuki negotiating with Naza Group to enter Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: The hopes of Suzuki making a comeback are still alive. It is said that the Japanese automaker is in talks with the Naza Group to re-enter the Malaysian automotive market which it exited three years ago due to cut-throat competition in the small-car segment. The major ones coming from Perodua and Proton that are the leading automakers in the country, with Myvi, Axia and Iriz small car offerings, respectively. Perodua sold 149,233 units combined of the Myvi and Axia last year which is 24 per cent of total 600,000 vehicles sold last year.

Well, according to the anonymous source who talked to The Malaysian Reserve said, “Both parties would go through certain assessments over the deal. They are already at the final stage of concluding the partnership agreement”. Suzuki is likely to return to Malaysia as early as this year.

The same source also revealed that the first lot of models to be offered in the country include the Jimny and the Swift, which were sold previously in Malaysia. Along with this, the source confirmed that the automaker would not be partnering with Berjaya Corp Bhd (BCorp) for marketing its vehicles in Malaysia. There are rumours that the company is not planning to consider CKD local assembly at the moment, hence we are expecting the potential model line-up to be more focussed.

Naza currently is a distributor of brands like Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, Ferrari, Kia, Citroen, Peugeot and Ducati in the country. It is suggested that Naza-Suzuki partnership will only involve cars and the distribution of Suzuki two-wheelers would continue to be the same as before.

Suzuki left Malaysia in 2016 after an agreement as a part of rationalization exercise with DRB-Hicom and Proton was signed in June 2015. Under that agreement, Suzuki agreed to grant access to its platforms, models, technology and powertrains with tech assistance to Proton. After which all the Suzuki dealerships were converted to Proton Edar outlets and sales along with assembly was halted in Malaysia. Later in November 2016, Proton launched a co-developed Ertiga MPV.

Also Read: Suzuki Katana officially previewed in Malaysia