Maruti Suzuki unveils roadmap for next 30 years

Aiming to maintain leadership in the highly-competitive automotive market, Maruti Suzuki India has unveiled a roadmap for the next 30 years, eyeing sales of three million vehicles annually.

“2013-14 was a significant milestone year for us, as in December we completed 30 years of selling cars. It is a good time to review what we have achieved and what we should do in our next 30 years-Maruti 2.0,” Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) Chairman R. C. Bhargava said in the company’s annual report for 2013-14.

The blueprint, Maruti 2.0, is set to step up investments in new initiatives, with a renewed focus on innovation, R&D and customer outreach. MSI has set up a target of selling 3 million cars annually. However, no timeline has been given.

In 2013-14, Maruti had sold a total of 11.55 lakh vehicles.

Talking about the Gujarat plant, Mr. Bhargava said the move by MSI to let parent Suzuki Motor Corp invest and own the Gujarat plant was keeping in mind the company’s future requirements. “The much higher availability of funds with Maruti would enable your company to strengthen its R&D and develop, and maintain the much larger number of models required to achieve sales of 3 million cars,” he said.

To double or triple the volumes, the number of products had to correspondingly go up. These products would have to be refreshed periodically also, he added.

MSI Managing Director and CEO Kenichi Ayukawa commented, “…while we continue to provide compact cars, we will also enter new segments like SUVs/MUVs with full bandwidth. We will also be open to leverage opportunities in the LCV space, if our product and platform offer a compelling proposition.”

Stating that sentiment had changed, in the last two months, Mr. Bhargava said the car market was showing signs of revival. He expressed optimism that the sentiment-driven growth would be soon replaced by economic factors driving higher sale of cars.

“The Prime Minister has promised the people that Indian manufacturing will revive and will create jobs for the millions of our young men and women. I believe this government has the will, and the skill, to make this happen and manufacturing in India will become increasingly competitive. Gradually all the impediments to attaining globally competitive operating conditions will go,” he added.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited