Maruti to make a mark in Suzuki's global sales

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country's biggest carmaker, is set to play a larger role in the operations of parent Suzuki Motor and will contribute a third of the Japanese company's global sales by 2009-10, the Indian firm's managing director Shinzo Nakanishi said on Thursday.

"I believe that Maruti Suzuki is ready to play a much bigger role in Suzuki's global operations, and my task will be to make that happen," Nakanishi told PTI in an e-mailed interview, a day after he took over as MSIL managing director.

Nakanishi identified strengthening of research and development operations at MSIL to realise its immediate goal of becoming an important aid in SMC's growth story worldwide.

"R&D at MSIL will strengthen in the next 3-5 years, both in terms of infrastructure and capability so that Maruti plays a bigger role in Suzuki's global operations," he said.

SMC has set itself an ambitious target of selling as many as three million cars worldwide by 2009-10 and wants MSIL to contribute at least 30 per cent of this target.

"Of the three million cars that Suzuki wants to sell worldwide, almost 30 per cent have to come from Maruti Suzuki India," he said, adding, "We have an aggressive plan for new model launches".

In line with MSIL's global approach, Nakanishi said the company's engineers are working on a new generation of engines that are likely to be available in the next 3-5 years.

"For the future, our engineers are evolving the next generation engines that will serve the Indian market, among others. Our objective is that these next generation engines should be even better in terms of fuel efficiency, emission, performance and other critical parameters," he said.

These engines would reflect all the know-how and development that Suzuki has done in the area of engine technology over the past many years, he added.

He said Maruti Suzuki has started to share its good sales and service practices with other Suzuki companies worldwide. "I expect this flow to gain momentum in the next few years," Nakanishi added.

He said MSIL has lined up certain critical initiatives that would improve the experience of customers and partners and in his new role he would keep a close watch on them.

Asked about his priorities, Nakanishi said: "I believe, first, that we will stay focused on the goal of achieving one million sales by 2010. This will require capacity expansion and upgradation of manufacturing facilities, for which we have already announced an investment of Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion)."