As if unsatisfied by the success story of Maruti, the new chief of the Indian arm of Japanese auto giant Suzuki Motor Co's on Friday claimed it will overtake the parent company in the next two years.
"Other than Suzuki chairman Oasmu Suzuki, nobody had the confidence of India's story. Maruti will overtake Japanese parent in terms of production in two years when it produces one million cars," newly-appointed Maruti Suzuki India Ltd managing director Shinzo Nakanishi told PTI in New Delhi.
He said by 2010, MSI would be producing one million (10 lakh) cars, but SMC in Japan will have about 8.5 lakh (850,000) units.
"The Japanese market is a saturated one. SMC has a production capacity of about 6 lakh (600,000) small cars, 1 lakh (100,000) big cars and another 1.5 lakh (150,000) cars for supplies to other companies like Nissan and Mazda," Nakanishi added.
Asked if MSIL would be the single biggest contributor to SMC's global sales in due course of time, he said: "As the MD of MSIL I would like to be the number one, but other markets like Indonesia, Europe and Latin America will also be contributing in a big way."
"But we want MSIL to be a growth leader for SMC," Nakanishi said, adding that the sales and service network expansion was underway for reaching the one million target.
MSIL had outsold its parent in April-September period by clocking 3,36,758 passenger vehicles in the domestic market as against SMC's 3,15,000 units in Japan over the same period.
On whether SMC can recreate the India story elsewhere, he said: "If there is a country with similar population,
perhaps." When pointed toward China, he said: "That's a different market with too many players. SMC already has two joint ventures, one with a 60,000 units capacity and the other with 100,000 units."
Claiming that the success of MSIL in India was unique, he said: "When we first came to set up in Gurgaon, it was an empty land with only monkeys and snakes. . . now it has changed and India has grown. . . When we gave the government a target of 100,000 units target in the first five years of operations, nobody believed it."
Having cornered over 50 per cent of the Indian car mart, Nakanishi said his focus would now be on preparing the company to play a much bigger role in Suzuki's global operations.
Already the company is investing Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) to enhance capacity and upgrade manufacturing facilities.
Besides, it is also ramping up the research and development in India to bring it at par with SMC's facility in Japan.
MSIL engineers are developing next generation engines that will serve the Indian market, among others, which are likely to be available in the next 3-5 years.
The company plans to launch the first ever vehicle developed entirely in India by 2010-11. Also, it has started to share its good sales and service practices with other Suzuki companies worldwide and expects this gain momentum in the next few years.
