In 40th year, Suzuki to make aggressive India investments – Times of India

In 40th year, Suzuki to make aggressive India investments - Times of India


CHENNAI: Suzuki Motor Corporation will invest ‘aggressively’ in India, a significant global automobile hub for the group, Toshihiro Suzuki, president Suzuki Motor Corporation said. He was speaking at the launch of a Rs 11,000-crore passenger vehicle production facility in Kharkhoda, Haryana – the largest in the world and a Rs 7300 crore Lithium Ion battery plant in Hansalpur, Gujarat by prime minister Narendra Modi.
Suzuki said that the Japanese carmaker has set up a new wholly-owned subsidiary in India – Suzuki R&D Centre, which will help develop new capabilities for India and the global markets. The new company will strengthen ties with Indian academic institutes and startups to develop diverse human resources for the group.
Prime Minister Modi laid the foundation stone of two key projects of the Suzuki Group in India to commemorate the Japanese company’s 40th anniversary in this country. The vehicle manufacturing plant in Kharkhoda, Haryana, will have the potential to make one million cars and SUVs a year.
The first phase of the project will be set up with an investment of Rs 11000 crore. The second project is the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery manufacturing facility at Hansalpur Gujarat, being set up with an investment of around Rs 7300 crore to make advanced chemistry cell batteries for EVs.
Describing the government’s EV focus, the PM said, “it is a certainty that with the strengthening of supply, demand and ecosystem, the EV sector is going to progress.” Calling EVs a “silent revolution”, he highlighted government efforts to strengthen the EV ecosystem, including Income Tax rebates and simpler loan processes.
“To boost the supply, work is also being carried out at a fast pace to introduce PLI schemes in automobile and automobile components manufacturing”, the Prime Minister said.
Many policy decisions have also been taken to prepare a robust electric vehicle charging infrastructure. “A battery swapping policy has also been introduced in the 2022 Financial Budget,” he added.
The Prime Minister also remarked that India has announced in COP-26 that it will achieve 50% of its installed electrical capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030. “We have set a ‘Net Zero’ target for 2070,” the PM said and expressed happiness that Maruti Suzuki is also working on things like biofuel, ethanol blending and hybrid EVs.
The Prime Minister suggested that Suzuki start work on projects related to compressed biomethane gas. “It is our goal that India becomes Aatmnirbhar for its energy needs in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal,” the Prime Minister said. “As a major part of energy consumption is in the transport sector, innovation and efforts in this sector should be our priority.”
Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava said the new investments announced on Sunday are part of the company’s growth vision. “We are now starting work in Kharkhoda where we will go up to a million cars as the market continues to grow,” he added.
The company, he said, may “stop production in Gurgaon as that area has become too highly congested and habited.” Maruti is aiming to hit 2 million cars production this year on an installed capacity of 2.2 million units. “The demand is very much there but production depends on our suppliers,” said Bhargava.
Also EVs will be manufactured from 2025 in Gujarat, he added. As for exports, this “will remain significant part of our activity and in the last two years we have doubled exports,” added Bhargava. “This will continue with opportunities growing.” FTA, he said, will give better access as will Europe’s EV shift.
“When Europe moves faster on EV, we will have more opportunity to export on the ICE (petrol/diesel) front to Africa, Middle East which will become more accessible,” said Bhargava. Exports from India reached a highest ever record of about 2.4 lakh units last year.





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