 "Maruti Suzuki Baleno")
Maruti Suzuki will start trial production at its Gujarat plant by March as it tries to ramp up production of the Baleno and the Vitara Brezza, which have over 50,000 pending orders each.
"Our plants are running to full capacity. Our combined capacity is 1.55 million cars a year at the plants in Gurgaon and Manesar in Haryana. This can at best be stretched to 1.57 million,” a Maruti Suzuki spokesperson said.
“We are working with vendors to enhance production of the Baleno and the Brezza. It has also meant production adjustments between models sharing the same line, like the Baleno and the Swift," he added.
Sales of Maruti Suzuki’s popular car Swift have fallen to 9,000 in June from 17,000 in the same month a year ago.
The company is planning to scale up production of the Brezza to 120,000 cars a year from an earlier target of 80,000. "We have ramped up in July and will scale up in the following months," the spokesperson said.
Sources said production of the Baleno had reached its capacity of 12,000 cars a month. "We are making internal production adjustments to enhance the Baleno output," the spokesperson said.
Maruti Suzuki’s new plant in Gujarat is expected to start trial productions in January-March. "The Gujarat facility will give us additional capacity from the fourth quarter. The Baleno will be the first model to be manufactured there," the spokesperson added.
The capacity of the first assembly line at Hansalpur in Gujarat will initially be 150,000 cars a year, growing to 250,000. The plant with an eventual capacity of 750,000 cars a year, is being set up by a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Suzuki Motor Gujarat, that will supply vehicles exclusively to Maruti Suzuki.
The company has a second site near Hansalpur where production will begin once capacity is exhausted at the first one. Maruti Suzuki’s total installed capacity in Gujarat will eventually be 1.5 million cars a year, equal to its current capacity at its plants in Gurgaon and Manesar.
Maruti Suzuki has plans to sell 2 million of the 5 million cars expected to be sold in India by the year 2020. In 2015-16, 2.02 million cars were sold in the country and 1.3 million were made by Maruti Suzuki.
