Maruti Swift to be a fully indigenous product soon

Maruti Udyog Ltd will localise the manufacturing of its latest car 'Swift' by 100 per cent in the near future.

Currently the car is about 85 per cent indigenous, with some high-end technological components such as sensors being imported from Japan.

The extent of localisation is just 40-60 per cent in the existing Maruti variants such as Alto and Zen

"In the near future, Maruti has plans to localise the production of Swift by 100 per cent. Indian technicians and vendors have become so efficient that they are capable of manufacturing high end components in Indian conditions," said Jagdish Khattar, managing director, Maruti Udyog Ltd. He launch the car in Mumbai today.

In addition to Maruti's investment of Rs 250 crore, the vendors have put in an investment of Rs 190 crore, on developing the car, said Khattar.

"Twenty-five Indian engineers from Maruti have worked with their Japanese counterparts in Suzuki Motor Corporation for two years to design this world car and prepare it for Indian conditions," said Khattar.

Three versions of Swift, LXi, VXi and ZXi has been launched in the country at prices ranging between Rs 3.85 lakh and Rs 4.83 lakh. The cost benefit coming out of localisation has been passed on to the customer, said Khattar.

Khattar refused to comment on the Swift sales target for the current year but said that the company has the capacity to make six lakh cars this year. It will plan exports of Swift only after the domestic demand has been efficiently met with, he added.

Crisil MarketWire adds: Meanwhile, faced with capacity constraints, Maruti will focus more on meeting domestic demand than exports, Khattar said.

India's largest car manufacturer is expected to produce 600,000 vehicles this financial year.

He didn't spell out how many Swifts the company expected to sell this year.

"We are not going to be restrained by any number which we may put out. We will be expanding this segment, and will be selling more than the total segment sells currently," Khattar said.

Analysts and market watchers said Swift is expected to sell 50,000-60,000 units a year.

Asked if the success of Swift would mean the company cutting down the production of other models (the company already has a very high capacity utilisation rate), Khattar said he was confident of meeting the domestic demand for all models.

Today Maruti shares closed at Rs 464 on the National Stock Exchange, up 0.8 per cent over Wednesday.