Suzuki’s swift to flog 25 million on Indian market

Calls to juice up our sports clubs

THEY’RE very much a niche player here but Suzuki’s value-first strategy is paying off in spades in India where they’ve just hit 25 million cumulative Indian domestic sales on January 9.

It’s been a long time coming as Suzuki signed a joint venture agreement with Maruti Udyog, the predecessor of Maruti Suzuki in 1982 and rolled out its first car, the Maruti 800 in December 1983.

Since then, the company has introduced models were see here like the Alto, WagonR, and

Swift, though to keep costs down they are very often not the same spec of cars offered in Europe.

Currently,

17 models are

A NEW €15 million scheme to encourage sports clubs across the island of Ireland to install electric vehicle chargers has launched.

Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, and Minister for Sport, Catherine Martin, announced the move yesterday.

Clubs across Ireland, both North and South, can now apply for grants supported through the Irish Government’s Shared Island Fund.

Mr Ryan said: “Ireland is in a strong position to move to transport electrification.

“Most of our journeys are short and most of our charging is at home, but it is important to make sure that we also have a strong public charging network.

“So many of us are frequent visitors to our local sports clubs, whether that’s dropping off our children for training or games, helping out or playing sports ourselves.

“It makes perfect sense then that we are starting our destination EV charging produced and sold in India, and Maruti Suzuki is strengthening its portfolio in the recently growing SUV models while popularising hybrid and CNG models.

One thing that always really impresses me about Suzuki is their sturdiness they’re not flashy but they always get the job done and having driven on Indian roads in a terrifyingly cheap and nasty Tata Nano that fried its own brakes as we descended a steep hill, that’s clearly exactly what you need in

India.

I’VE driven a fair few headturners in my time but this is the first head-scratcher I’ve ever had.

What exactly is it? Good question. After a week spent sampling the delights of the Citroen C5 X I’m still really none the wiser — but I enjoyed almost all of it.

First they said it was a crossover. Well, it’s not. Then they said SUV, wrong again. Then the word “estate” was trundled out but it’s a smidgen too tall for that really so already it’s a car that defies description — and that’s great.

What I can tell you is that its design is pretty radical — it’s got not one but TWO rear spoilers — and it doesn’t have the most lovable face, although those flared arches give the whole body a bit of momentum.

It’s not at all unattractive — in fact it’s a handsome car in the metal — it’s just different and that’s a breath of fresh air really.

It does come with a petrol option but there will be a little more fresh air about if you opt for the Plug-in Hybrid 225BHP.

My test car was the swankiest Flair model which will set you back €52,250 but for that you get a hybrid powertrain with a 1.6l petrol unit in cahoots with

a n 80KW electric motor being fed by a 13kWh battery.

On pure battery power alone you will probably get around 50km floating about town in impressive silence but motorways will absolutely murder your battery so that’s worth taking into consideration.

You will want to keep it charged though because having a bit of juice in the battery really turns this large and heavy car