Suzuki renames Indian subsidiary as plants expand

Suzuki Motor Corporation’s Indian automobile production and sales subsidiary Maruti Udyog has been renamed Maruti Suzuki India Limited.

Maruti Suzuki India was established in 1983 and by the end of March, 2007 had produced 6.4 million vehicles making it India’s largest motor manufacturer by a substantial margin.

In the year to March, 2006, the company’s share of the Indian Domestic market stood at 54.6% with substantial exports to countries close to India as well as to Latin America, Asia and Africa.

Maruti Suzuki has 4,700 employees based at its original plant at Gurgaon and at an all new plant at Manesar which opened in 2006 to meet steadily rising demand for its products. The Gurgaon plant is built on a site of 1.2 million square metres whilst that at Manesar has a total site area of 2.4 million square metres. The combined built area of both plants is 380,000 square metres [almost 4.1 million square feet].

Maruti Suzuki’s production facilities are currently being further expanded to accommodate production of new models and this will enable exports to Europe and other overseas markets to be increased. By 2009 production capacity will be 960,000 units annually, representing a further investment of almost £900,000,000 [200,000 million Yen].

As part of this expansion a new diesel engine plant has been established producing engines under licence from Fiat Powertrain. Diesel engines from this new plant – also at Manesar - will be supplied to Magyar Suzuki, Suzuki’s Hungarian subsidiary, for installation in the new Suzuki Splash.