India’s biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki expanded its capacity to 26 lakh cars a year with the opening of its third manufacturing plant.
The plant, in Kharkhoda in Haryana, constructed at an expense of 18,000 crore rupees, will have a capacity for 2.5 lakh vehicles a year and for the present will focus on making its SUV breadwinner model Brezza.
Maruti presently has 3 manufacturing plants in Haryana — the first, flagship factory in Gurugram, the second in Manesar and now the latest one in Kharkhoda, which is in Sonipat district not too far from Gurugram and Delhi.
In addition, its wholly-owned subsidiary Suzuki Motor Gujarat, has a manufacturing facility in Hansalpur in Gujarat. This plant will be the carmaker's future-forward hub, focussing on electric models.
Maruti had made the bold move of looking at a third plant in Haryana in the uncertain days and months after the Covid pandemic when vehicle sales had plummeted and the auto industry was staring at a crippling shortage of components and electronic spare parts.
In part, the move was forced by the realisation that the company was missing the SUV wave with its focus on small cars, while rivals like Hyundai were notching up volumes and profits on the back of marquee SUV models like the Creta.
The Kharkhoda plant’s foundation stone was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi back in August 2022.