subject: Maruti Mulls To Increase Production Of Diesel Variants [print this page] Maruti is definitely going to incur heavy losses due to the production of its highly selling models Maruti Swift and Maruti Swift Dzire being halted due to the violence stint at the Maruti Suzuki India Manesar plant a few days ago. The company on the other hand is looking for options to rev up the production of the diesel versions of these two cars at its Gurgaon plant. The company manufactures its MPV Maruti Ertiga and Maruti Ritz hatchback from the Gurgaon plant. One of the senior Maruti Suzuki executive said that work is being done in three shifts at the Suzuki Powertrain India plant. However, after the violence at the Manesar Maruti plant the work is being done in two shifts only.
The manufacturing of the transmission is unaffected and will continue to happen in the same trend as these are used in all the car models. The excess diesel engines will be used for ramping up the production of diesel vehicles at the Gurgaon plant. At Suzuki Powetrain, a total of 1,100 diesel engine are manufactured along with 3,600 transmissions in a day provided the work is being done in three shifts.
The company has five diesel powered cars under its portfolio which includes Maruti Swift, Maruti Swift Dzire, Maruti Ritz, Maruti SX4 and Maruti Ertiga. The company uses 1.3 litre diesel engine sourced from Fiat in all these five cars. Out of these cars, Maruti Swift hatchback, Maruti Swift Dzire and Maruti SX4 are manufactured at the company"s Manesar facility.
This would help the company to counter a daily loss of Rs 70 crores which t is incurring everyday due to the lockout at the MSI"s Manesar plant. Maruti Ritz sales have been low for a long time with the monthly sales at 6,000 units. On the contrary, Maruti Ertiga currently has an order of 32,000 units. Presently the waiting period for the high end version of Maruti Ertiga MPV goes up to six months. The production capacity of the MPV has been raised by 40 per cent and currently the company is producing 7,000 units every month. However, the company is now contemplating to increase the production capacity of the MPV further. Before making any further plans regarding increase in production capacity the company first wants to discuss the matter with its vendors for supplying components.
Maruti Swift hatchback and Maruti Swift Dzire models contribute almost 35 per cent of the monthly sales. The combined backlog of these two cars is around 1, 10,000 units. The last quarter which ended in the month of June, the monthly sales of the diesel models increased by 90 per cent. However, the sales of the petrol version fell by 8.6 per cent. Maruti Swift hatchback is an extremely popular model of Maruti and it has been ruling the Indian roads ever since its launch seven years ago in 2005. The new version of the hatchback which was launched in India in August 2011 has been successfully getting ample orders every month.
