VW News: Volkswagen & Suzuki Divorce Case Decision Won’t Come Till 2013

[William Maley]

William Maley

Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

March 16, 2012

The Volkswagen/Suzuki partnership had so much going for it back in 2009. Two years later, the two are fighting and lobbing cheap shots. Suzuki wants out of it, while Volkswagen wants to work it out. Last November, Suzuki asked for arbitration in London to make Volkswagen return the 19.89% interest it had taken and to pay an unspecified amount of damages.

Suzuki in their filing claims that Volkswagen didn’t keep its promise of providing Suzuki with access to technology and that Volkswagen refused several times to settle the matter out of court. Volkswagen however is refuting Suzuki’s claims in the suit.

Well, Volkswagen said on Monday the arbitration panel won’t make a decision on the case till 2013. Not good news for either company.

Source: Bloomberg

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[G. David Felt]

Volkswagen wants to be the worlds biggest auto company and is willing to say and do just about anything to get there and yet I doubt they have ever really stopped and asked does this tie up make sense?

I can see where Suzuki would see this as a chance to gain access to auto technology to pull their ugly boring cars forward at lower investment costs and yet I doubt that will ever happen.

Mazda, Suzuki are among some of the auto companies that might get a life line for short term, but in the long term, I just do not see them surviving. We have production capacity glut around the world still and in reality not all these product variety is really needed.

Good luck Suzuki, but I think your years are counted before you are a book mark in a digital history book.

[crash900s]

I think the problem was Suzuki needed a more powerful engine for the Kizashi after GM divested and they were disappointed by VW's electric vehicle technology offerings. Then Suzuki asked Fiat for engines and VW accused them of breaking the deal. Anyway it's divorceville for sure.

I test drove the Kizashi and really liked it actually. What it lacked in power it made up for in handling. I think Suzuki struggles in North America but I believe they were very successful worldwide with good growth in the developing market in India as a joint venture with Maruti and are the 4th largest auto manufacturer in their home market of Japan.