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In 2018, Suzuki officially announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market. After a 4-year absence, Suzuki has a new trend in the Chinese market. Recently, a group of domestic patent maps of Suzuki Baleno have been exposed online, so many media believe that Suzuki Baleno may be listed in the domestic market, when Suzuki Motor may also return to the Chinese market. Suzuki officials did not respond to this.

From the exposure of the patent map, Suzuki Baleno domestic patent map appearance and shape is basically the same as the overseas version, the front face using fumigated air intake grille, both sides with split shape of the LED lamp group, the overall design and Nissan Panda is more similar. On the side of the body, the new car has smooth lines, a double waistline design and two 15-inch and 16-inch windmill wheels. In the rear part, the new car adopts a "C" shaped taillight group, and the exhaust layout is a hidden design. In terms of body size, the new car is 3990/1745/1500mm in length, width and height, 2520mm in wheelbase, and positioned as a small car, which is larger than Suzuki's popular Otto model, but smaller than Honda Fido and Volkswagen POLO.

The interior part, the new car has not been disclosed yet. For comparison, the overseas Suzuki Baleno is equipped with a 9-inch suspended central control screen and equipped with mobile phone interconnection, 360-degree panoramic image, HUD head display and so on. In terms of power, the new car is expected to be equipped with a 1.2L naturally aspirated engine of the same overseas version, with a maximum power of 90 horsepower and a maximum torque of 113Nm, matching a four-speed automatic transmission or a five-speed manual and CVT transmission.

Suzuki Baleno, a Suzuki car specially designed for the Indian market, went on sale in February as a compact hatchback with a starting price of 53300 yuan in overseas markets. In terms of sales, Suzuki Baleno is Suzuki's best-selling model, second only to Otto and Swift.

Suzuki officially entered the Chinese market in 1993 and announced its withdrawal from the Chinese market in 2018. According to this calculation, Suzuki has been out of the Chinese market for four years. This Baleno declaration in China may indicate that Suzuki will return to the Chinese market in the future. It should be noted that prior to this, there were media reports that Suzuki might return to the Chinese market. The news came out because on March 25 this year, Suzuki Co., Ltd. applied for design patents for two models. The authorization announcement dates of the two models were June 21 and May 31, respectively. In June this year, Suzuki declared the model S-CROSS in China. Voices about Suzuki's possible return to the Chinese market also began to be heard, while there were reports that Suzuki was signalling a return to the Chinese market. On June 22, the relevant staff of Suzuki (China) Investment Co., Ltd. told the media: "our officials have not heard of this news, so there is no more news to disclose." Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National passenger car Market Information Association, said that Suzuki's move to apply for a model patent does not entirely mean that the company will return to the Chinese market, but in terms of possibility, Suzuki will consider re-entering the Chinese market through import channels.

In fact, Suzuki was one of the first Japanese cars to enter the Chinese market. Suzuki provided its technology to China as early as 1984 and established Changan Suzuki and Changhe Suzuki as joint ventures with Changan Motor and Changhe Automobile in 1993 and 1995 respectively. In May 1993, Suzuki Co., Ltd. and Changan Automobile Co., Ltd. jointly established Chongqing Changan Suzuki Automobile Co., Ltd., and then launched Otto, Swift and other best-selling small cars, and achieved good sales performance. Known as the "king of cars".

Data show that from 2008 to 2011, the sales of Changan Suzuki were 102500, 150100, 200000 and 220000 respectively, showing an increasing trend year by year, and reached a historical sales peak of 220000 vehicles in 2011. Among them, domestic Suzuki Alto went on the market in 1995 to the second generation of Otto stopped production in 2008, with cumulative sales of more than 500000 vehicles in China. However, due to the changes in China's car market, the small car market is shrinking, and Suzuki failed to keep up with the trend of the car market in time, resulting in a year-on-year decline in sales. According to the data, Changan Suzuki sales fell 26.42 per cent in 2012 from a year earlier to 170000, and from 2016 to 2018 fell to 115300, 83900 and 34500, respectively. In response, the HKIFA pointed out that the share of economic small cars in the Chinese market has declined, from 35% in 2003 to 6.7% in 2017. In this context, Suzuki's models in the Chinese market are still dominated by subcompact cars, resulting in a continuous decline in sales. After sales were hit hard, Suzuki tried to launch a small SUV Vitra and Snapway, but sold only about a thousand vehicles a month.

In addition, Changhe Suzuki also belonged to Changan Automobile in 2009 and was acquired by BAIC in 2013. By 2017, Changhe Suzuki sold only 31000 vehicles a year, according to data.

In view of the decline in sales for years and continued losses, Suzuki finally regretted its exit. In 2018, Suzuki transferred the equity of Changan Suzuki to Changan Automobile at a price of 1 yuan, and Changan Suzuki changed from a joint venture company to a wholly owned subsidiary of Changan Automobile. Since then, Suzuki officially withdrew from the Chinese market. In December 2020, Chongqing Changan Suzuki Automobile Co., Ltd. officially changed its name to Chongqing Suzuki Automobile Co., Ltd., but the agreement between Suzuki and Changan will not end until 2022. Changan Automobile can still produce, sell and hang models with Suzuki logo.

Global sales of Suzuki have rebounded after Suzuki's defeat in China. Data show that Suzuki sold a total of 2.76 million new cars worldwide in 2021, including 609400 in Japan and 1.3652 million in India. According to Suzuki's development plan, Suzuki plans to increase sales by 56% to 3.7 million units by March 2026, while vigorously developing new energy vehicles.

As for Suzuki Baleno's declaration in China, whether the car will be available in the domestic market and whether Suzuki will return to the Chinese market, there is still a lot of uncertainty at the news level, and officials have not responded to the news.

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