Maruti Suzuki India, the country's largest passenger carmaker, is preparing to commence production at its new plant in Haryana's Kharkoda by the end of the financial year. The company, with a production capacity of 1.3 million units a year, aims to expand it by 1 million units annually.
RC Bhargava, Chairman of MSIL, mentioned during a post-earnings call that the upcoming plant would begin rolling out passenger cars by March 2025. He stated that their expansion plan at Kharkoda was progressing smoothly, expecting the first line to commence production before the end of the financial year. Subsequently, they anticipated adding one new production line every 12 months or so.
In 2022, the passenger car major acquired 800 acres of industrial land from the Haryana State Industrial & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HDIISC) for Rs 21.31 billion to establish its largest manufacturing plant. MSIL, which already operates manufacturing facilities in Gurgaon and Manesar, planned to invest over Rs 180 billion in the third plant over the current decade, with a production capacity of 1 million units annually.
The initial plan was to initiate operations in the plant with a capacity of 250,000 units per year in the first phase. Bhargava explained that they couldn't finalise their second site for the expansion program due to the enforcement of the code of conduct, halting all necessary procedures.
Regarding exports, MSIL, which recorded the highest number of exports last year, has set ambitious targets. Bhargava mentioned, "We had the highest exports ever at about 285,000 cars [in FY2024]. We are now working very closely with Suzuki Japan to find and evolve the best changes required in management practices and operational procedures to achieve our larger targets efficiently." He aimed for production of 4 million cars and exports ranging from 750,000 to 800,000 cars by 2030-31.
