Following the news that Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor aims to make all minicars connected by 2025;

Bakar Sadik Agwan, Senior Automotive Consulting Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers his view:

“With the announcement, Suzuki is expediting its transition towards key global megatrends in the automotive industry, which includes Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electric (CASE). The company has been a laggard in transition to megatrends when compared to other global OEMs but is eventually in the race. Thanks to its global alliance with Toyota Motor and other partners, the company now have electric vehicle (EV) and other capabilities and is now pushing digital technology for its cars.

“Suzuki has been known more as a car brand focused on low production costs and high fuel economy cars, at least in its core markets like India and Japan. Developments related to next-gen mobility looked mostly on the back burner. It was only with Suzuki-Toyota’s alliance that it launched its first cross badged EV in the European market. Suzuki’s push into connected cars will be a major milestone for the company and will make its products safer and more competitive as well as help in transitioning company’s brand image as a ‘traditional’ automaker.

“Suzuki is a major player in the small car market with 40% share in Japan and similar market share in India. The company aims to implement its plan first in Japan and later in India. Suzuki will be working with its global partner Toyota on some parts of the development. Recent electrification plans along with rapid digitization of its minicars will increase Suzuki’s competitiveness in both the markets, which presently are flooded with technology/feature-loaded products from several domestic and Korean OEMs. With the rapid technological disruptions in the global auto industry, it is now must for OEMs to be technologically competitive with its products to prevent loss of market share to newbies.”