Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to increase vehicle production capacity in India while significantly improving manufacturing productivity as it looks to accelerate new model launches and strengthen its global operations.
The company aims to reduce vehicle development time by half by 2030. Suzuki Motor Corporation President Toshihiro Suzuki said the automaker also plans to improve development efficiency by 30 per cent compared with fiscal 2020 levels and raise factory productivity by 50 per cent over the standards at its Manesar facility in Haryana.
India to Become Key Global Manufacturing Base
Suzuki said India and Japan will remain the two key centres supporting its global business operations. Technologies developed in Japan will be shared with Maruti Suzuki India and then adapted according to 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.
The company is targeting annual vehicle production capacity of 4 million units in India by FY30, compared with its current capacity of 2.9 million units.
A fourth production line at Hansalpur in Gujarat has recently increased the facility’s annual production capacity to one million vehicles. Suzuki also operates manufacturing facilities at Gurugram, Manesar and Kharkhoda, while a new plant is planned in Sanand.
Suzuki to Speed Up Vehicle Development
To shorten development cycles, Suzuki plans to change the way different functions work together. Instead of handling planning, design, production engineering, quality and procurement one after another, the company intends to work on these areas concurrently.
Suzuki also plans to increase the use of digital engineering and modularisation. The approach will allow modules to be shared across different products while bringing vehicle development and manufacturing processes closer together.
Automaker to Continue Multi-Powertrain Strategy
Suzuki said it will continue following a multi-powertrain approach instead of relying exclusively on battery electric vehicles.
The company pointed to differences between markets in areas such as electricity generation, renewable energy availability, charging infrastructure, fuel supply and government policies. According to Suzuki, these variations make it difficult for a single propulsion technology to meet the requirements of every market.
As a result, the automaker plans to continue developing battery electric vehicles and hybrid models alongside internal-combustion engines, compressed natural gas, flex-fuel and carbon-neutral fuel technologies.