Maruti Suzuki increases Baleno production to reduce waiting period

The biggest car company in India, Maruti Suzuki is planning to increase the production capacity of the Baleno hatchback to reduce the waiting period depends on the variant. The carmaker’s decision not only to cut the waiting period, but also meet the present demand in the automotive market. Maruti Suzuki announced that its parental company, Suzuki Motor Corp will start pilot production at the manufacturing plant in Gujarat in the Q1 (January to March) of the next calendar year.

R S Kalsi, Maruti Suzuki’s executive director for marketing and sales department, said that we at the company will search for the production efforts to enhance the Baleno hatchback production. In the present market, Maruti Suzuki has best-in-class new products like VitaraBrezza, S-Cross crossover and Baleno premium hatchback. Besides, all these products received the waiting period from the carmaker, according to him.

Presently, Maruti Suzuki has received around 45,000 bookings of the new Baleno and Vitara Brezza each in India. The hatchback has launched in October 2015 and the 6 to 8 months of waiting period based upon the variant and location. The Baleno petrol versions with the Boosterjet engine have more demand in the international markets, including the parent company’s home market (Japan).

Maruti Suzuki has doubled the production capacity of Baleno to 12,000 units per a month in the last months due to the product demand. Now, production capacity is also increased to meet the domestic and export market requirements. Kalsi said that the 250 company vendors along with Maruti Suzuki will increase their investments, production and other facilities. The total process will take time, but we will try to complete in the limited period as soon as possible. In the second part (July to December) of this year, the company will definitely increase the product’s volume.

The Baleno is sold via the premium sales outlets under the NEXA network that will be expanded to 250 units by the end of this fiscal year. Now, the Indian market has around 127 Nexa outlets in Mumbai, Thane, Hyderabad, as well. Maruti Suzuki has initiated the Baleno exportation to the Japanese market in January 2016 and the same model will be introduced here (in India) as the Baleno RS. 

Moreover, Kalsi added that the Gujarat plant has the higher production capacity of 2,50,000 units in the first phase. The plant will supply the components and vehicles to Maruti Suzuki to meet the targets. With the new cars, the company’s sales will be increased around 6 to 8 percent in the fiscal year 2016-17. Otherwise, Maruti Suzuki will report the double-digit growth with the upcoming launches, Maruti Ignis and Baleno RS, showcased at the 2016 Auto Expo in Delhi. 

Content Source: Automotive Blog