Maruti lines up Rs.4k cr investments

To infuse the funds into R&D, other key areas over 3 years; Plans to launch SUV in 2015

Hyderabad: Alarmed by intense competition in the market place, Maruti Suzuki has lined up Rs 4,000 crore investments to strengthen its R&D capabilities and marketing infrastructure over the next two to three years. The India’s largest carmaker will also use the funds to accelerate product development to fix the gaps in the model lineup and take the competition head-on.

"We continuously make investments into research and development, and other key areas such as marketing infratructure. Over Rs 4,000 crore of investments are going on currently and we will invest them in next two to three years,” C V Raman, Executive Director (Engineering), Maruti Suzuki India, told media at the launch of Alto K10 small car here on Tuesday.

He further said that the funds would also be used for enhancing the company’s R&D capabilities and expanding product lineup. “We are setting up test labs and test tracks. Marketing infrastructure is being augmented,” he explained. On the new launches, he said the company would launch a sports utility vehicle (SUV) in 2015. “We will definitely come into the SUV space. Sometime next year, you will see the launch of our SUV,” he explained.

With ever increasing sales of diesel models in the country, the automaker is now keen to develop its own diesel engines. At present, it is sourcing the diesel engines from Italian carmaker Fiat. “Obviously, we will work on diesel technology,” he said without giving any timeline for the development of its own diesel engine.

Replying to a query, he said that Maruti Suzuki would post around 10 per cent sales growth in the current fiscal. “Our sales have gone up by 14 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal. In October, our sales rose 1 per cent, but industry registered de-growth. As our base was very high last year, we expect to end this fiscal with double digit or around 10 per cent growth,” he explained.

He said that the company would ramp up production of auto gear shift (AGS) models of Celerio and Alto K10 to meet the increasing demand for them.

“We started with around 1500 units of AGS version a month when we launched Celerio last year. We increased the production to around 4000 units now. We will further ramp up the production in the wake of adding AGS version to the Alto K10. We expect AGS version of Alto K10 to contribute 20 per cent to the model’s sales,” he explained.

The new Alto K10 small car, now launched in the city, is priced between Rs 3.18 lakh and Rs 3.95 lakh (ex showroom Hyderabad). The model is available in six variants including a CNG version which returns a mileage of 32.26 km per kg. The petrol version, powered by 998 cc K Series engine, offers a fuel economy of 24.07 km/l.