Suzuki Motor Corp on Tuesday said that Maruti Suzuki India will make its next global car, A-Star, which will drive its growth in Europe and help increase its annual sales in the continent to 420,000 vehicles from 310,000 in the last fiscal.
Maruti, in which Suzuki owns 54.2 per cent equity, will make the hatchback at its Manesar plant, near Delhi, from October next year.
The 1,000 cc car will be one of the company’s two big launches next year. The other will be Splash, which will come in 1,200 cc petrol and diesel versions.
However, while two-thirds of A-Star’s initial production of 150,000 a year will be exported, Splash will be primarily for the Indian market.
This is the first effort by a Japanese auto maker – all of whom take immense pride in their manufacturing prowess and quality consciousness – to make a global car in India.
A-Star will be produced only in India. It will not be sold in Japan, where the company already has a mini car for the market.
In recent years, Maruti has contributed handsomely to Suzuki’s profits. In the first half of this financial year, it sold more cars in India than what its parent company sold in Japan.
It is understood that Maruti, which had sent a team of engineers to Japan for inputs in the development of Swift, has contributed a lot even to A-Star from the conception stage.
“Suzuki Motor Corp attaches great importance to India,” Suzuki Chairman Osamu Suzuki said at a news conference in New Delhi, as he held up a picture of the new car, with headlights that looked like eyes with eyelids.
Suzuki will invest $1.79 billion in its plants in India as it steps up annual capacity to 960,000 cars by March 2009.
The Maruti stock ended up 3.2 per cent at Rs 1,078.50 on Bombay Stock Exchange, whose Sensitive Index closed at a new high on Tuesday.
Source - Business Standard
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