Maruti to launch series of cars in India: Suzuki president
Toshihiro Suzuki, the newly appointed president & COO of Suzuki Motor Corporation, on Wednesday said that Maruti Suzuki, the Japanese car maker's Indian arm, planned to launch around 15 new cars over the next five years, while "gradually" moving to bigger vehicles.
These launches would include replacement and upgrades to the 13 models that Maruti had in its portfolio.
Describing Maruti as Suzuki's "engine with a lot of turbo-power", Suzuki said the parent would work with the India's largest car manufacturer to develop vehicles for the global market, jointly venturing into newer markets. "For us Maruti Suzuki is an engine which will exceed the performance of the booster jet engine," he said while adding that he expects the Indian operations to play an even bigger role in the coming years. Already over one-third of the Maruti's sales come from India. "With the expansion of the Indian market, we will get our volumes from there."
In his first interaction with Indian media after taking over the new role in June, the 56-year-old son of Suzuki chairman O Suzuki indicated that the company would focus on the "value for money" segment as opposed to "cheap".
"The Indian market is growing in size but with the growth, the expectations of Indian customers is changing. Along with this change, we would gradually graduate into manufacturing of bigger vehicles, gradually," he said. At the same time, he said that globally there was demand for the sub-four metre small cars and the volume of B- and C-segment vehicles was expected to grow more, which the company planned to focus on. Besides, there would be further attention to improving fuel efficiency, by reducing the weight of the vehicles and through other measures, to counter the impact of enhanced mileage that "high investment" hybrids and other more energy-efficient technologies were offering.
Suzuki said the company's engineers were evaluating if there was a need to look at hybrids and fuel cells independently or in collaboration. But he ruled out immediate plans for a collaboration, like the one with General Motors or Fiat, suggesting tie ups with component manufacturers were "more fruitful".
A candid Suzuki acknowledged that there were "risks involved" in excessive reliance on the Indian operations, which was expected to account for nearly 60% of its sales by 2020. "There are a lot of bright areas but we need work on the shadow areas that are getting concealed," he said. He added that 'Team Suzuki', comprising the parent and the Indian arm, would jointly develop new markets, including in India, apart from making operations in Thailand, Indonesia and Europe profitable. He then went to say that having worked on developing R&D capabilities in India over the next five years, there would be more focus on joint development.
(The reporter is in Frankfurt on Maruti Suzuki's invitation)
Toshihiro Suzuki, the newly appointed president & COO of Suzuki Motor Corporation, on Wednesday said that Maruti Suzuki, the Japanese car maker's Indian arm, planned to launch around 15 new cars over the next five years, while "gradually" moving to bigger vehicles.
These launches would include replacement and upgrades to the 13 models that Maruti had in its portfolio.
Describing Maruti as Suzuki's "engine with a lot of turbo-power", Suzuki said the parent would work with the India's largest car manufacturer to develop vehicles for the global market, jointly venturing into newer markets. "For us Maruti Suzuki is an engine which will exceed the performance of the booster jet engine," he said while adding that he expects the Indian operations to play an even bigger role in the coming years. Already over one-third of the Maruti's sales come from India. "With the expansion of the Indian market, we will get our volumes from there."
In his first interaction with Indian media after taking over the new role in June, the 56-year-old son of Suzuki chairman O Suzuki indicated that the company would focus on the "value for money" segment as opposed to "cheap".
"The Indian market is growing in size but with the growth, the expectations of Indian customers is changing. Along with this change, we would gradually graduate into manufacturing of bigger vehicles, gradually," he said. At the same time, he said that globally there was demand for the sub-four metre small cars and the volume of B- and C-segment vehicles was expected to grow more, which the company planned to focus on. Besides, there would be further attention to improving fuel efficiency, by reducing the weight of the vehicles and through other measures, to counter the impact of enhanced mileage that "high investment" hybrids and other more energy-efficient technologies were offering.
Suzuki said the company's engineers were evaluating if there was a need to look at hybrids and fuel cells independently or in collaboration. But he ruled out immediate plans for a collaboration, like the one with General Motors or Fiat, suggesting tie ups with component manufacturers were "more fruitful".
A candid Suzuki acknowledged that there were "risks involved" in excessive reliance on the Indian operations, which was expected to account for nearly 60% of its sales by 2020. "There are a lot of bright areas but we need work on the shadow areas that are getting concealed," he said. He added that 'Team Suzuki', comprising the parent and the Indian arm, would jointly develop new markets, including in India, apart from making operations in Thailand, Indonesia and Europe profitable. He then went to say that having worked on developing R&D capabilities in India over the next five years, there would be more focus on joint development.
(The reporter is in Frankfurt on Maruti Suzuki's invitation)
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