Automotive News Europe — 2024-07-17
Automotive Industry
Suzuki will lean on partner Toyota for electrification and software technology as it rolls out a strategy for smaller, lighter and less costly vehicles.
Suzuki, famed for its small cars, plans to make them even smaller and lighter under a new technology strategy that links it up with partner Toyota on electrification and software.
President Toshihiro Suzuki outlined the plan here at a 17 July 2024 news conference, saying the biggest challenge will be maintaining the brand's cost competitiveness in a changing landscape.
To achieve its goals, Suzuki will partly lean on its giant ally Toyota, the president said. Toyota will help Suzuki not only with electrification technologies but also the computer systems the junior company needs to run tomorrow's software-defined vehicles.
Teaming up will also help Toyota, which holds a 5% stake in Suzuki, by adding scale to its investment in hybrid and all-electric drivetrains as well as its upcoming vehicle software systems.
Other Toyota partners, including Subaru and Mazda, have said they also will take technology from the world's biggest automaker as carmakers race to share the cost burden.
Subaru is working with Toyota on its next electric vehicles and adapting Toyota's trademark gasoline-electric drivetrain setup for its own hybrids. Mazda has said it plans to borrow the upcoming Arene operating system being created by the Woven by Toyota software subsidiary.
Suzuki summarized his company's road map with the keywords "smaller, fewer, lighter, shorter, beauty." Taken together, the push will help the automaker cut costs and reduce emissions, both in the manufacturing of its vehicles and from the operation of its vehicles, Suzuki said.
Suzuki said the next generation of the popular Alto subcompact hatchback will shed about 220 pounds, or 15% of its weight, to fall below 1,322 pounds.
Engineers aim to achieve this by rethinking every part from scratch. A new suspension, for example, will be redesigned to accommodate less bending in the exhaust system. Such reworking will cut weight while increasing body rigidity and improving driving performance, Suzuki said.
Lighter vehicles will enable less costly electrification systems, such as 48-volt mild-hybrid layouts in which engines with output of only 48 hp can be paired with 2-kilowatt electric motors. This will help Suzuki keep its offerings competitive. The Japanese carmaker's biggest markets are in price-sensitive areas such as India and Eastern Europe.
"I think we will be able to optimize the amount of battery power, and we will be able to make it without making the vehicle too heavy," Suzuki said. "We will have discussions with Toyota to develop a hybrid that suits Suzuki and that will also be good for the future and for Toyota."
In 2023, Toyota said it would partner with Suzuki and its minicar subsidiary Daihatsu to jointly develop and manufacture an all-electric commercial minivan for all three brands.
By 2030, Suzuki plans to introduce six EVs in Japan, five in Europe and six in India, the company said in 2023. About 20% of its sales in Japan will be full-electrics by then, and the rest will be hybrids. Suzuki sees the ratio reversed in Europe, with EVs at 80%.
India is Suzuki's biggest market, accounting for 55% of global sales. There, the company expects old-school internal combustion to account for 60% of its sales in 2030. But that includes more eco-friendly fuels such as compressed natural gas and ethanol mixtures.