Ahmedabad, August 26 – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said that “swadeshi” should be the life mantra of every Indian, stressing that India’s “Make in India” initiative has created a favorable environment for both global and domestic manufacturers.

The Prime Minister was speaking at the Hansalpur manufacturing plant of Maruti Suzuki after flagging off the company’s first electric vehicle, the e-Vitara. He said the day marked a significant milestone as cars made in India would soon be driven across the world, symbolizing the country’s growing global footprint in the electric mobility sector.

As per agency report, Modi urged citizens to prioritize buying indigenous products, emphasizing that it matters less who invests and more that the hard work behind the products is that of Indians. He remarked that this principle makes Maruti Suzuki, too, a swadeshi company.

The Prime Minister underlined that “Make in India” has delivered major achievements, with electronic production rising by 500 percent, mobile phone manufacturing growing by 2,700 percent, and defense production by 200 percent in the last decade. He highlighted that India’s strengths lie in its democratic system, demographic dividend, and vast skilled workforce, making it an attractive hub for global investors.

Citing Maruti Suzuki as an example, he noted that cars manufactured in India are now being exported to Japan, showcasing both the strength of India-Japan ties and the global confidence in India’s manufacturing sector. Modi called on every state to seize opportunities by competing in reforms, development-oriented policies, and good governance to attract investment.

Looking ahead, he said India will not stop at current achievements but will intensify its focus on future industries through its “Mission Manufacturing” initiative. The Prime Minister also highlighted rapid progress in the semiconductor sector, stating that India is poised to play a leading role in this critical area of technology.

New Delhi, April 2 – Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), the country’s largest car manufacturer, has announced that it will increase prices across several of its models starting April 8, with hikes ranging between Rs 2,500 and Rs 62,000.

As per agency report, the company informed stock exchanges on Wednesday that the decision has been driven by rising input costs, operational expenses, regulatory changes, and the inclusion of new features in vehicles. Despite efforts to absorb a significant portion of the cost pressures, Maruti Suzuki stated that it is now compelled to pass on some of the burden to customers.

The price adjustment will vary depending on the model. The compact SUV Fronx will see an increase of Rs 2,500, while the Dzire Tour S will become costlier by Rs 3,000. Multi-purpose vehicles XL6 and Ertiga will see a hike of Rs 12,500.

Additionally, the price of the compact model Wagon R is set to rise by Rs 14,000, and the Eeco van by Rs 22,500. The company emphasized its commitment to maintaining cost-efficiency and minimizing the impact on customers, even as it navigates escalating manufacturing and compliance costs.

New Delhi, February 9 – Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), one of the country’s leading automobile manufacturers, is prioritizing the development of a robust charging infrastructure before bringing its much-anticipated E-Vitara electric SUV to the Indian market. The company is aiming to position the E-Vitara as a primary vehicle for families, rather than just a secondary or urban-use car.

To encourage EV adoption, Maruti Suzuki is also planning to enhance after-sales support, introduce leasing models, and offer attractive financing options to make the purchase process more accessible for customers.

Speaking to PTI, Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales) at Maruti Suzuki India, stated that the lack of public charging infrastructure remains a major concern for customers considering an electric vehicle. To address this, the company plans to install fast chargers at every 10-kilometer radius in India's top 100 cities, ensuring better access to charging points.

He further elaborated that 97% of all EV sales in India currently originate from these top 100 cities, making them the primary focus for infrastructure development. By strategically placing fast-charging stations, Maruti Suzuki aims to eliminate range anxiety and make long-distance travel in an electric vehicle more feasible for Indian customers.

Banerjee emphasized that the company does not want the E-Vitara to be perceived as a secondary vehicle but rather a family’s primary car. To achieve this, Maruti Suzuki plans to ensure comprehensive after-sales service that meets the expectations of customers looking for reliability in an EV.

The company unveiled the E-Vitara electric SUV at the Bharat Mobility Global Expo and intends to export the model to key international markets first, before launching it in India. With India's EV market growing rapidly, Maruti Suzuki is making significant efforts to establish a supportive ecosystem, ensuring that its customers can transition to electric mobility with ease.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), India's leading automaker, has announced the expansion of its production capacity at the Manesar plant in Haryana. The company has added a new vehicle assembly line to Plant A, one of the three manufacturing units located at the facility.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Maruti Suzuki confirmed the launch of the new assembly line at Manesar. This addition is expected to increase the plant's annual production capacity by one lakh units, bringing the total to nine lakh vehicles per year.

Commenting on the development, Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and CEO of MSI, highlighted the company's ambitious goal of nearly doubling its overall production capacity to four million vehicles annually within the next seven to eight years. He emphasized that the expansion at Manesar is a significant step towards achieving this target.

This move by Maruti Suzuki indicates a strategic effort to cater to the growing demand for its vehicles in the Indian market. The increased production capacity will allow the company to manufacture more popular models and potentially introduce new ones to its lineup.

Gandhinagar, Jan 10 (IANS) Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor will invest Rs 35,000 crore to build a second car plant in Gujarat, company president Toshihiro Suzuki said at an investment summit in the state on Wednesday.

“The new plant will produce one million units a year as a result of which the company’s annual production in Gujarat will become two million units,” Suzuki said.

The country’s largest carmaker at present has a total production capacity of around 22 lakh units per annum across its two manufacturing plants in Haryana and Gujarat.

The company is also setting up a new manufacturing plant at Sonipat in Haryana, on the outskirts of Delhi, with an investment of Rs 11,000 crore to expand production.

New Delhi, Nov 27 (IANS) Maruti Suzuki announced on Monday that it will hike the prices of its cars from January 2024. The country’s leading carmaker has informed the stock exchanges that it has decided to increase car prices due to increased input costs.

“While the company makes maximum efforts to reduce costs and offset the increase, it may have to pass on some increase to the market," Maruti said in its regulatory filing.

The price increase will vary across models, the company said. However, it did not specify the exact amount of the hike that is on the cards.

Earlier in April this year, Maruti Suzuki had gone for a price hike across all models.

New Delhi, Oct 18 (IANS) Maruti Suzuki's parent Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to make India its global electric car manufacturing hub with the first batch of vehicles expected to be rolled out as early as 2025, according to a news report.

Suzuki will start producing electric vehicles at the Gujarat plant and export them to Japan as well. The company will also consider supplying India-made EVs to partner Toyota Motor for European markets that would be sold under the Toyota brand, the report published in Japan's Nikkei newspaper on Wednesday stated.

Nikkei said Suzuki will set up a new production line for electric cars at the Gujarat plant which also produces petrol cars. The battery-powered cars that Suzuki plans to export to Japan would be small SUVs priced around 3 to 4 million yen ($20,043), Nikkei said.

At present Maruti Suzuki is lagging behind rivals such as Tata Motors, which is currently the market leader in EVs and has confirmed that it will have 10 EVs in its line-up by 2026. In contrast, Maruti has no pure electric vehicle in its portfolio. Maruti arch competitor Hyundai has also committed to launching six EVs by 2028.

However, Maruti Suzuki has said earlier that it intends to launch six EVs by 2031, but there was concern among shareholders that other firms may outpace Maruti’s EV rollout.

The company has also earlier announced it will invest around 150 billion yen (about Rs 10,445 crore) by 2026, for local manufacturing of EVs and the batteries required for them, in the Gujarat factory.

New Delhi, Oct 17 (IANS) The country’s leading car maker, Maruti Suzuki India announced on Tuesday that it would issue shares worth Rs 12,841 crore to its parent company Suzuki Motor Corporation to acquire 100 per cent equity capital in the latter’s Gujarat factory.

This is the first time that Maruti has disclosed a value for the Gujarat plant after it said that would buy the plant in July. 

Maruti will issue 12.3 million preference shares at Rs 10,420.85 each, which is a 2.7 per cent discount to the stock's closing price on Monday.

“We wish to inform that the Board of Directors of the Company, at its meeting held on 17th October, 2023, approved the acquisition of 12,84,11,07,500 equity shares of INR 10/- each representing 100 per cent paid-up equity share capital (Purchase Shares) of Suzuki Motor Gujarat Private Limited (SMG), owned by Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan (SMC), for a total purchase consideration of INR 12,841.1 crores (Purchase Consideration),” Maruti Suzuki said in its official exchange filing.

At 10.18 am, Maruti Suzuki's shares were trading 0.5 per cent lower at Rs 10,650 per share.

The share issue will raise Suzuki's stake in Maruti to 58.19 per cent from 56.48 per cent at present.

Suzuki has invested about Rs 18,000 crore in the plant which has been manufacturing cars for Maruti since 2017 and has an annual capacity of 750,000 units. 

Maruti’s first electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) will be manufactured in the Gujarat plant. The company plans to roll out six EV models by 2030 from the plant. 

Chennai, Oct 11 (IANS) Passenger car major Maruti Suzuki India Ltd announced on Wednesday that it has commenced exports of sport utility vehicle (SUV) Jimny 5-Door.

The vehicle will be shipped to destinations including Latin America, Middle East and Africa, the company said.

The Jimny 5-Door is manufactured exclusively in India. Earlier in November 2020, Maruti Suzuki had started production of the 3-door Jimny exclusively for exports to areas including Latin America and Africa.

In June 2023, it launched Jimny 5-Door for the domestic market.

According to Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and CEO, the India-manufactured Jimny 5-Door will surely create excitement among the company’s overseas customers.

“Aligning with the government of India’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, our company now exports an extensive range of 17 vehicles across segments,” he said.

New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) The carbon footprint of electric cars in India would be much bigger than that of hybrid cars because in the country, 75 per cent of the electricity is made from coal, according to R.C. Bhargava, the Chairman of Maruti Suzuki Ltd.

He made the remarks while addressing the 50th National Management Convention organised by All India Management Association (AIMA).

Bhargava said that the electric cars will not be clean until India gets at least 50 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Until then, the hybrid cars will be cleaner, he said, adding that even shifting to CNG cars is a better option, as CNG is a cleaner fuel than petrol.

"May be India should move to ethanol, hydrogen and fuel cell options instead of going for electric cars," he said.

Talking about coming slightly late to the electric car market, Bhargava said that Maruti had built an electric version of the Wagon R but its cost was too high, and now Maruti would come to the market with larger electric models which could be more viable.

However, he said that even with six electric models, the share of electric cars in Maruti's sales would be only 15 per cent to 20 per cent.

He pointed out that today, the share of electric cars in Indian car market is only 2 per cent.

 On Maruti's decision to stop diesel car production, Bhargava said that while the government is not preventing anyone from making diesel cars, the compliance with CAFE standards will make their costs exorbitant.

On the subject of the shift of the mass market from small hatchbacks to SUVs, Bhargava said that though the whole market is not shifting, the small car market is not growing anymore. He said that it is because of that the growth of Indian car market is only about 5 per cent a year instead of 8 per cent.

Talking about automotive supply chain issues, Mr Bhargava said that currently there are no production constraints because of semiconductor shortage. However, he regretted that all electronics for Indian cars have to be imported.

"India needs to get more component makers to make in India for India and for global supply chains," he said while also highlighting the lack of local electronics suppliers as the only weakness in India's auto components supply chain.

 Bhargava expressed confidence about the growth of India's car market. H

e said that there is no other market in the world with the same growth potential, as other major markets such as the US, Japan and China have become saturated and rely on replacement sales.

 Talking about competition in Indian car market, Mr Bhargava said that Indian market has been very competitive for the past 15-20 years and now it is set to get even more competitive as global car makers can see an opportunity in the changing car technology and regulations.

He said that Maruti will try to keep a large part of the Indian car market under its control by offering the best of technology, reliability, and after-sale service.

 On the issue of stagnant growth of Indian manufacturing sector despite the increased ease of business and production-linked investment scheme, Bhargava said that the state government bureaucracies are still stuck in the licence and control mindset and even the entrepreneurs are more focused on accumulating personal wealth instead of growing their companies.

"Time is not valued by state bureaucracies... and entrepreneurs cannot lay the blame only on labour laws," he said. Manufacturing sector growth is only 5 per cent while India needs a 12 per cent annual growth, he said.

 Talking about India's limited success in benefiting from the China plus one strategy of global companies, Bhargava said that India is not the only option for them, and many of them are moving to Vietnam.

 Regarding the new safety regulations such as Bharat NCAP, Bhargava said that so long as it is easy to get driving licence without tests, it will be difficult to bring down the accidents and deaths on Indian roads.

He said that India has no system of mandatory vehicle fitness certification for cars and scooters. He pointed out that most of the road deaths involve two-wheeler riders and pedestrians.

 Bhargava is confident about the future of Indian car industry though the expensive transition to new technology and regulations are likely to keep its growth at about 5 per cent for the next decade, provided there are no unexpected shocks to the economy.

 The session was also livestreamed on AIMA's social media channels.

Chennai, July 31 (IANS) Automobile major Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has decided to acquire Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd (SMG) from its Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) for a sum to be arrived at later, a top official said.

Briefing reporters about the Board of Directors' decision, Chairman R.C.Bhargava said the SMG was set up as a 100 per cent contract manufacturer for Maruti Suzuki India in Gujarat in 2014.

Over the years, the dynamics of the automobile industry has changed with several powertrain technologies like electric vehicles (EV), hybrids, CNG, ethanol and others.

"Managing this scale and complexity of production with multiple powertrains, under different managements, would pose several challenges," the company said.

"The Board of Directors considered this and decided that for the purpose of efficiency in production and supply chain, it is best to bring all production related activities under MSIL (Maruti Suzuki India Ltd)," the Indian company said.

Bhargava also said the contract manufacturing agreement between Maruti Suzuki India and the SMG will be terminated. Last fiscal, SMG clocked a turnover of Rs.31,852 crore up from Rs.24,440 crore in FY22 and Rs.15,850 crore in FY21.

The transaction is expected to be completed before March 31, 2024. As per the contract manufacturing agreement, Maruti Suzuki India could buy SMG at the book value.

The book value is about Rs.12,755 crore, Bhargava said.

Maruti Suzuki India has a production capacity of about 2 million and it needs to increase that to 4 million by 2030-31 and the company is looking at various locations.

Meanwhile, Maruti Suzuki India closed the first quarter with a total income of Rs 33,328 crore (Q1FY23 Rs 26,588 crore) and a net profit of Rs 2,485 crore (Rs 1,012 crore).

Chennai, July 6 (IANS) Passenger car major Maruti Suzuki India Ltd on Thursday said it has begun exports of its compact sport utility vehicle (SUV) Fronx.

The first batch of 556 vehicles was shipped from Mundra, Mumbai, and Pipavav Ports to destinations in Latin America, Middle East and Africa.

“The newly-launched Fronx is an important model in our portfolio, and we are confident that it will augment our ambitious export plans,” Maruti Suzuki India Ltd Managing Director & CEO Hisashi Takeuchi said. 

“With support from our parent company, Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan we have expanded our portfolio and are now exporting to more markets,” he added.