The sale of Maruti Suzuki Baleno, manufactured at the company's new Gujarat plant, will begin in February next year. Maruti Suzuki Chairman RC Bhargava confirmed the news while addressing shareholders at the company's 35th AGM in New Delhi.
The carmaker has been struggling to deliver its premium hatchback due to an overwhelming demand. It is yet to deliver over 50,000 units for assured orders. The waiting period of the vehicle, which was launched in October last year, currently extends to about five months, and is expected to get less once the upcoming Gujarat plant gets functional in January 2017. Maruti Suzuki had confirmed that the Baleno will be the first model to be rolled out of the factory.
The company plans to begin the trial production at its Gujarat plant in January, when the first batch of the Baleno will be manufactured. All units in the first batch are targeted at the domestic market.
Kenichi Ayukawa, the MD and CEO of Maruti Suzuki, confirmed last week that the company will continue to manufacture the Baleno at the Manesar plant even after the Gujarat facility gets operational. Baleno is Suzuki's global product manufactured only in India. Suzuki is planning to export the vehicle to over 100 countries from India.
So far Maruti Suzuki has sold over 80,000 units of the Baleno in the country. Under the hood, the car comes with a 1.2-litre K-Series petrol engine and a 1.3-litre DDiS diesel engine. While the petrol engine is tuned to develop 83bhp and 115Nm of torque, the diesel mill churns out 74bhp and 190Nm of torque. The premium hatchback, which is sold via Nexa premium dealerships, has been priced in the range of Rs. 5.25 lakh to Rs. 8.35 lakh, ex-showroom, Delhi.
