Maruti Suzuki will increase its production capacity to meet the growing demand of car in India

In order to meet the growing demand of cars in India, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., one of the largest passenger car markers of the country, is looking forward to increase its production capacity in its four manufacturing plants located in Gurgaon and Manesar.

The company would free up available spaces at its mega plants to increase production capacity by 20 percent. At present, Maruti Suzuki has two manufacturing facilities each located in Manesar and Gurgaon. It is going to start another plant at its Manesar site in 2011 and a fifth facility in Manesar within 2012.

In 2010, Maruti Suzuki is going to produce 1.2 million cars against 1 million last year. The company saw an unexpected surge in demand of its multi-seater Eeco model and Maruti Swift. Company executives said that Eeco, which was launched few months ago, sold three times more than their initial target of 6,000 units per month.

Mayank Pareek, Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki said, “We are absolutely stretched to the limit, but still the demand is much more than what we can produce. From a generous expected growth of 14-15 per cent in sales, we are recording a rise of 30 per cent every month,”

Maruti is now planning to move towards flexi-lines which means, the company would be able to roll out more than one model of car from a single assembly line. Through this method, the number of additional cars the company can produce has gone up by 30,000 units. Already the company has two-flexi lines and it would further increase the number.

Maruti Suzuki Unimpressed and Unmoved by Tata Nano?

Tata Nano is the market and it is expected to become popular in the Indian market. Well, my fellow blogger Mehdi Hassan has expressed some doubt whether Nano will turn around Tata Motors’ luck. You know that Maruti is the largest player in the auto market in this country. In fact, Maruti 800 is the cheapest car in Indian roads right now. Nano will replace it when Tata Nano hits the road in large number. So, you may wonder whether Maruti bosses would feel some kind of pressure as their car is no longer the cheapest car in the country.

It seems that Maruti officials are not impressed or do not feel any pressure because of the arrival of Nano in the market. They feel that their dominance and market share will remain intact. They feel so confident that they have announced that they would not slash the price of their inexpensive models.

I agree with their idea because Tata Nano and Maruti 800 are for different market segments and for different kinds of consumers. The consumers who can afford Maruti 800 would never go for Nano. They have perhaps the right reason to feel this way confident. Despite economic recession, Maruti sale has not suffered until now.

(This entry was originally published in March 2009.)