Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

Maruti Suzuki, country’s largest car maker is freeing up fresh space for engine production at its Gurgaon plant, in order to be prepared for any sudden shift in demand as was seen last year with diesel models. It is planning to reduce the car manufacturing capacity at its original facility by about 5 lakh units by 2015, from around 9 lakh units it made at the peak in 2010.

The company expecting that freeing even one lakh car capacity will give plant at least 2-3 lakh engine capacity. Gurgaon plant makes a lot of models such as the 800, Alto and Omni, as these get discontinued, and the car production capacity at the plant will be reduced. Maruti plans to new model at its more automated lines at Manesar and Gujarat.

This new engine plant for 1.5 lakh more engines will be ready by mid-2013 (extend to 3 lakh by 2014), adding to an existing 3 lakh diesel engine capacity. It has an additional 13 lakh petrol engine capacity, 40% of which is unutilized.