Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd, the India-based auto-manufacturing arm of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp, has completed the construction of its third and final assembling unit to achieve its full production capacity of 750,000 vehicles per year, sister concern Maruti Suzuki said today.
Unlike Maruti Suzuki, Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd is 100% owned by the Japanese parent, and functions as a supplier of finished vehicles to the Indian company.
It started operations in 2017 with a capacity of 250,000 units per year, which was increased to 500,000 units last year.
Now, according to Maruti Suzuki, the capacity of the plant has been raised to the full-design capacity of 750,000 per year with the addition of the third factory.
However, Suzuki Motor Gujarat Pvt Ltd will take a few more months before starting production from the third assembly facility.
“SMG is now starting preparations to commence vehicle manufacturing (plant No 3) from April 2021 onwards,” India’s largest automaker said.
It did not say what kind of products would be manufactured on this assembly line.
The first line manufactures Baleno and Swift and the second line Swift.
Maruti Suzuki has a production capacity of around 1.5 million at its own plants, and with the 0.75 million from SMG, the total group production capacity now stands at 2.25 million.
In comparison, Maruti Suzuki’s sales is around 1.3 lakh vehicles per month or around 1.56 million per year, including exports.
The company was hit hard by the COVID-19 lockdown, but saw a sharp bounce-back in the June-September period due to pent-up demand as well as increased demand for cars as people became wary of using public transport.
“Production volume from the [new] plant [in Gujarat] will depend upon business conditions and market demand,” the Indian company said.