Maruti Might Accelerate 2nd Phase Of Capacity Expansion At Gujarat Plant

With heavy demand for Maruti Suzuki cars such as Vitara Brezza and Baleno, the automaker recently said it may advance commissioning of its second phase of capacity expansion at its vehicle manufacturing plant in Hansalpur, Gujarat. The new facility that is expected to begin production by early 2017 will offer a capacity of 2.5 lakh units in the first phase. The second phase with the same capacity may now come up by 2019.

Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza

Maruti Suzuki sold 10,232 units of the Vitara Brezza and 9,120 units of the Baleno last month. In fact, both cars were among the top 10 selling passenger vehicles in July. However, this increasing demand has lead to sizeable backlog of orders - the Vitara Brezza's waiting period borders 8 - 9 months and that for the Maruti Suzuki Baleno is nearly 6 - 8 months.

R S Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki, said, "We may look at advancing the second manufacturing phase in Gujarat." The Gujarat plant will have a production capacity of 2.5 lakh units in the first, second, and third phase each. However, the company could further increase the capacity to up to 15 lakh units in the future. And with Maruti Suzuki setting a target of producing and selling over 20 lakh units by 2020, there is little doubt that it will definitely need more capacity.

Maruti Suzuki Baleno

It must be noted, Maruti Suzuki's current production capacity from its two plants at Gurgaon and Manesar stands at 15 lakh units.