Maruti Suzuki confirms Gujarat plant will cut waiting period for Baleno, Vitara Brezza

Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corporation's (SMC) new plant in Gujarat's Mehsana district is inching closer to the start of production, which is expected by the end of this month. SMC's first wholly-owned unit in India will supply vehicles and components exclusively to Maruti Suzuki. Once the production commences, it will significantly reduce the waiting period of high-selling models Vitara Brezza and Baleno.

Gujarat plant of Suzuki to deliver 10,000 Baleno units to Maruti Suzuki by April 2017

"Our major difficulty in 2016 has been inadequate manufacturing capacity, which resulted in quite large waiting period for Baleno and Vitara Brezza. The commissioning of the Gujarat plant this month should give relief in 2017-18," Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava was quoted as saying by ET Auto.

Currently, both the car models have a waiting period of over five months, depending upon the variant. Both the models also have over 9,000 units of average monthly sales in India. With export units added, the Indo-Japanese firm has been struggling to deliver cars as per demand due to production constraints. Production from the Gujarat plant will ease the pressure on Maruti Suzuki plants in Haryana, which are running at their full capacity.

The first vehicle to roll out from the plant will be the Baleno hatchback and around 10,000 units will be delivered to Maruti Suzuki by the end of this financial year. Maruti Suzuki will be expecting around 85,000 units of Baleno from the Gujarat plant, of which around half will be the 1.3-litre diesel variant.

The Indo-Japanese outfit has already divulged plans to export Baleno from India to over 100 countries. It has been touted that Baleno will be the key product from the Gujarat plant.

The Gujarat plant has been developed with a total investment of Rs 18,500 crore and the factory will have the capacity to make 250,000 vehicles annually. Maruti Suzuki plans to produce two million vehicles per year by 2022 in India, up from the 1.4 million at present. A major chunk of the planned production is expected to move to the Gujarat plant.