Suzuki to newly establish a Marine Test Centre in the U.S.

Suzuki Motor Corporation is pleased to announce that its U.S. subsidiary, Suzuki Motor of America Inc. (SMAI), will newly establish the ‘Suzuki Marine Technical Centre USA’ in Panama City, Florida.

The centre is approximately 73,700m2 with about 1.7 billion JPY investment. It will conduct testing of all marine products, and is the first facility of its kind outside of Japan for Suzuk.
Conventionally, operations including design, development and testing of outboard motors have been conducted solely in Japan at Suzuki’s Marine Technical Centre located in Kosai, Shizuoka.

However, since the U.S. is the largest market for Suzuki’s marine business, the company has decided to set up a new state-of-the-art facility in the eastern region of the country. Indeed, the eastern region, which includes the Gulf of Mexico, accounts for approximately half of the boat market in U.S., so by conducting development in an environment much closer to its customers, Suzuki aims to make even more attractive and reliable products.

Also, by having SMAI conduct a part of testing operations, the Suzuki Group as a whole will be able to develop its class-leading outboards even more efficiently. In addition, the centre will be utilised to proactively promote the collaboration with U.S-based boat builders with the aim of further expanding Suzuki outboard sales.

Daisuke Kawatari, General Manager for Suzuki Motor Corporation European Liaison Office, said, “This is great news and we are really excited by the prospect of this new facility. It will not only benefit the American market, but will also surely have a huge benefit for European market as it will increase the speed and capacity for developing new products. It is also fitting that this news comes in Suzuki Motor Corporation’s 100th anniversary year.”