New Delhi: Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to significantly accelerate vehicle development and expand its manufacturing capacity in India, with an ambitious target of reaching 4 million vehicles of annual production capacity by fiscal 2030.
Suzuki Motor Corporation President Toshihiro Suzuki said on Friday that the company aims to halve vehicle development times by 2030 as it seeks to introduce new models faster and strengthen India’s position in its global manufacturing network.
The company plans to improve development efficiency by 30 per cent compared with fiscal 2020 levels and increase factory productivity by 50 per cent over the benchmark set at its Manesar plant in Haryana.
India to become major global manufacturing hub
Suzuki currently has an annual production capacity of around 2.9 million vehicles in India. The company plans to raise this to 4 million units by FY30.
A fourth production line at Hansalpur in Gujarat has recently increased Suzuki’s annual production capacity at the facility to around one million vehicles.
Suzuki also operates manufacturing facilities at Gurugram, Manesar and Kharkhoda, while a new manufacturing site is planned at Sanand in Gujarat.
Toshihiro Suzuki identified Japan and India as the two key centres of Suzuki’s global business foundation. Technologies developed in Japan will be shared with Maruti Suzuki India and adapted to meet the requirements of individual markets.
“Technology is shared. Products are regionally optimised. This is our mindset, and this is how Suzuki competes,” Toshihiro Suzuki said.
Focus on faster vehicle development
To shorten development cycles, Suzuki plans to change the way its vehicles are developed. Instead of carrying out planning, design, production engineering, quality and procurement sequentially, the company intends to work on these functions concurrently.
Suzuki also plans to expand the use of digital engineering and modularisation, allowing common modules and technologies to be shared across different vehicle models.
The approach is intended to bring product development and manufacturing processes closer together while reducing the time required to launch new vehicles.
Multi-powertrain strategy
Suzuki also confirmed that it will continue with a multi-powertrain strategy rather than relying exclusively on battery electric vehicles (BEVs).
The company plans to develop and offer a combination of battery-electric, hybrid, internal-combustion engine, compressed natural gas (CNG), flex-fuel and carbon-neutral fuel technologies.
Suzuki said the suitability of different powertrains varies from one market to another because of differences in electricity generation, renewable-energy availability, charging infrastructure, fuel availability and government policies.
The company therefore believes that maintaining multiple propulsion technologies will allow it to adapt vehicles to the requirements of different markets.
With India emerging as one of Suzuki’s key global production bases, the planned capacity expansion and faster development cycle are expected to play an important role in the company’s international manufacturing strategy.
