Suzuki halts production of Swish 125 scooter in India

Suzuki Motorcycle India (SMIL) has halted production of its 125cc scooter model, Swish 125, for the past three months (July-September 2016), indicates industry data.

The company, however, has confirmed that it has not discontinued the model, which is available on demand.

The Swish 125, which was unveiled in January 2012 at the Auto Expo and went on sale in March 2012, was built on the old Suzuki Access platform. It was given a sporty design to appeal to young urban buyers but failed to become a preferred scooter in the domestic market.

Industry data reveals that Suzuki produced 21,574 units and 18,457 units of this model at its Gurgaon plant in FY2014-15 and FY2015-16 respectively. This highlights that the production of this model averaged 1,800 units and 1,500 units per month in FY2014-15 and FY2015-16 respectively.

On the domestic sales front, the Swish 125 sold 19,561 units and 19,244 units in FY2014-15 and FY2015-16 respectively, averaging close to 1,600 units per month. The Suzuki Swish’s 125cc sibling, the Access 125, on the other hand, sold 176,128 units in the last fiscal, and more than two lakh units in FY2014-15.

During the ongoing financial year, the company is last seen locally producing the Swish 125 in June 2016, when it reportedly produced 132 units of this model. Clearing old inventory, it sold 503 units and 333 units of the Swish 125 in June and July respectively.

On the other hand, the company rolled out 15,926 units and 12,312 units of Suzuki Access 125 off its assembly lines in June and July 2016 respectively.

Access 125 production ramped up

It is understood that while at one end Suzuki has halted the production of the Swish 125 from July, this has helped it ramp up production of its Access 125 model. It can be seen that the Access 125’s production rose to 25,154 units in August, which was more than double the production in the previous month.

In September 2016, the company produced 26,678 units of the Access 125 and sold 26,417 units in the domestic market. Suzuki did not produce and sell (domestic market and export) even a single unit of Swish 125 during the month.

Replying to a query from Autocar Professional enquiring whether the model has been now discontinued, the company states: “Suzuki is prioritising the production of its New Access 125 to meet the high demand and to try and reduce the waiting period and backorders. Also, Suzuki has sufficient trade supply of the Swish (125) in the relevant markets where there is demand for this model.”

With the Swish 125 being moved out of production, the company is now producing and selling two scooter models – 125cc Access 125 and 110cc Lets. The latter is another model that failed to deliver the much-needed volumes to the company, thanks to the cut-throat competition in the 110cc scooter segment dominated by the likes of Honda’s Activa and Dio, TVS Motor’s Jupiter, Hero MotoCorp’s Maestro and Duet and Yamaha’s Fascino and Ray variants.

Nevertheless, the Access 125, which has seen a sharp improvement in its sales after the all-new model was launched earlier this year, continues to be the performing brand for the company. The new Access 125 has singlehandedly pulled up the total scooter volumes for the company, which has sold 152,765 units (domestic) between April-October 2016, up by 8.71 percent YoY.