Back in 2014, Suzuki offered Europeans a choice of three low-cost city cars of the type that made its reputation: the Splash, Celerio and Alto.
Ten years later the brand is still a leader in the field in both India and Japan, with a wide choice of basic mobility on offer. But in the UK and Europe? Not one.
Suzuki axed its final city car, the Ignis, last year after failing to make the economics stand up. European Union regulation has forced car makers to increase safety and reduce emissions to the point that the business case for small cars no longer works for many brands. Over the past decade, sales of city cars have halved in Europe to just over half a million last year, according to figures from market analysts Dataforce and JATO.
Two car makers in particular have become well-known for their opposition to the continued accretion of expansive regulations. Stellantis and Renault are pushing for the creation of a ‘kei’ category that mirrors Japan’s regulations that are designed to limit the size and power of one type of small car in return for certain concessions. “In 2019, 49 cars sold for under €15,000 in Europe," Stellantis chairman John Elkann told the Automotive News Europe congress in June. "Now, it’s just one.” That remaining example is the Fiat Panda, which is now largely restricted to Italy.
In Europe this potential category already has a tentative name: M0. The category would sit below the M1 regulatory class to which regular cars are homologated but above the L6/L7 category that tightly binds makers of quadricycles such as the Citroën Ami and Renault's Mobilize Duo.
Elkann has a slightly snappier preferred category name: e-Car. “There’s no reason that if Japan has a kei car, then Europe should not have an e-Car,” he said.
The EU is being lobbied. Wheels are in motion. But is there any sign that the EU will respond?
First let’s set out the UK position. Clearly, given that we’re no longer an EU member, we can go our own way. But that’s not going to happen, according to Mike Hawes, head of the SMMT, UK car makers’ association. “At the minimum it needs to be a European initiative,” he told journalists at the recent SMMT Summit. "We’re too small a market for car makers to design models for a category unique to us."
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