Suzuki though does have a third plant coming up soon. The new plant is in Gujarat and will go a long way to reduce the waiting periods of both these popular products. The first car to come out of the Gujarat plant will be the Baleno hatchback. With production starting in February 2016, the new plant will make close to about 7500 cars a month (Baleno). "The whole project (Gujarat plant) is on schedule. We will be selling cars from made in Gujarat from February. That remains, there is no change in that. During this financial year about 10,000 cars from Gujarat will be produced and delivered to us for sale," MSI Chairman R C Bhargava said.
Currently, between the Manesar and Gurugram plants, Maruti produces close to 15 lakh vehicles every year. The new addition of the new Suzuki plant in Gujarat plant will add another 2.5 lakh units every year to this to take the total up to 17.5 lakh units every year. While the Manesar and Gurugram plant is owned by Maruti Suzuki, the Gujarat plant will be operated primarily by parent company Suzuki instead.
With 2017 being a year of big launches for Maruti Suzuki with the likes of the Ignis, Baleno RS, Ciaz facelift, Swift Dzire and Swift hatchback scheduled, the new production facility comes at a perfect time for India's largest automaker. The new plant will also drastically reduce waiting periods for other Maruti products that have had to be sacrificed to meet the demand for more popular cars like the Baleno and the Vitara Brezza. This reduced waiting period across the board will mean more sales which will in turn increase Maruti Suzuki's market share from about 47% that it currently is.
