Suzuki Departure Caused By Outdated Business Model
Decent article. The hypothesis presented in the headline is contradicted by the body of the article, but the author does a decent job of demonstrating that Suzuki's business model is much different than Honda and Yamaha.
Suzuki is anchored to the European, North American and Indian motorcycle markets. Honda and Yamaha are growing their business in Southeast Asia, which is a motorsport obsessed customer demographic.
The North American and European markets are contracting and the product mix is unstable due to restrictive Euro regulations. The Suzuki Hyabusa for instance, will not be legal in Europe starting with the 2023 model year.
What is MotoGP providing to help manufacturers expand in the North American and European marketplaces? Basically nothing, unless you're Ducati, catering to the plutocracy with exotic bikes.
Suzuki is not the only manufacturer tethered to the European and North American markets. I wonder how much longer Aprilia and KTM can hold on, if they are not seeing an increase in profitability and sales of high-displacement motorcycles?
It's unclear what Suzuki are planning to do, but Superbike provides a vastly superior motorsport platform, if you're motivated by win-Sunday-sell-Monday in Europe and North America. Building a proper homologation special and making it competitive in World SBK will net thousands of additional sales over the product life cycle to racing teams, club amateurs and street bike collectors.
