Maruti Suzuki, India's largest passenger car maker, its in debut venture in the light commercial vehicles (LCV) segment, is expected to roll out its first LVC in the nxt two years.
The auto maker which had revealed its plans to foray into LCV segment earlier on Saturday said the new vehicle will compete with the current segment leader Tata Motors Ace and will be developed based on Suzuki Motor Corp's (SMC) Carry LCV platform.
"It was planned in our original agreement (with SMC) in 1982 that the Carry LCV would be launched in India but at that time, due to poor response from the market, it was shelved. Now the situation has changed and the board has given approval to go ahead for launching the LCV in India," said Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) chairman R C Bhargava adding, "In the last two years, we have seen a demand for such LCVs growing in India and we think we can offer a superior product in the segment as Suzuki has been doing for years globally."
Bhargava also said the vehicle will be sold in both diesel and CNG variants but the name of the vehicle is yet to be finalised. He also added that the new LCV vehicles will be part of the company's "de-risking business". It was also said that the vehicle will get the diesel engine which is manufactured in the country. Earlier reports revealed that the new LCV will be powered by an all new two-cylinder 800 cc diesel engine.
Talking about India's declining auto market, Bhargava said the current scenario is not good for any industry. "The working environment in India for doing business, not only in the automobile sector but also others, is not happening...even the FMCG business, which is the least recessionary, has been declining over the last few quarters. So you can imagine how it is affecting those who sell high-value durables," he said.
