The country’s largest carmaker Maruti NSE 6.83 % Suzuki will shortly commence work on its new manufacturing facility in Sonipat, Haryana. It could emerge as the largest production base for Maruti in India.
Maruti Suzuki chairman R C Bhargava told ET that construction work will begin soon at the unit, which will be commissioned by 2025. “We are waiting for the clearances and will begin construction shortly. The first assembly line at the unit will be commissioned within three years,” Bhargava said.
The Sonipat facility could have a total installed capacity of about a million units. Bhargava, “Unlike Gurugram and Manesar, there is land available to set up a fourth assembly line at Sonipat.
The company has three assembly lines each operational at its facilities in Gurugram and Manesar, with combined production capacity of around 1.5 million units. The company additionally sources vehicles from parent Suzuki Motor Corporation’s (SMC) facility in Gujarat.
Overall, Maruti Suzuki will invest ₹18,000 crore on the facility at Sonipat, which will replace the Gurugram factory that faces issues of traffic and congestion as it is located near residential areas. The Gurugram unit is the first manufacturing facility the company made operational in 1983. The Gurugram unit rolled out the first model in its line-up – the iconic Maruti 800.
Maruti Suzuki’s sales (domestic and exports) declined 6.7% to 1,457,861 units due to the impact of the nationwide lockdown imposed to check the spread of the coronavirus pandemic in the last financial year. Demand in the local market has revived on a fast clip post the second wave of covid, however, supply shortage of semiconductors continue to affect production across automakers. In the first nine months of the ongoing financial year, Maruti Suzuki’s sales rose 20.5% to 1,163,823 units. The company, in fact, has readied its biggest product onslaught of nearly half a dozen models this year.
