Maruti Suzuki To Produce Ertiga On New Line To Reduce Waiting Period

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has commenced production of the Ertiga on the new assembly line at Manesar that went onstream on Tuesday. That would reduce the waiting period on the multi-purpose vehicle.

India’s largest carmaker by volume has commissioned a new assembly line at its Manesar facility to manufacture one lakh cars annually, thereby raising the total installed capacity to nine lakh units per year, according to an exchange filing.

The Ertiga—both petrol and CNG variants—is the first car to roll out of this assembly line, a spokesperson for the company said in an email to NDTV Profit. This increased production would reduce the waiting period for the car from three-to-six months, they said.

Maruti Suzuki makes the Brezza, Ertiga, XL6, WagonR, DZire, S-Presso, Ciaz and Celerio cars at its Manesar facility. The firm refused to disclose details on production volume of each of these cars.

“We aim to nearly double our capacity to 40 lakh vehicles per annum over the next 7-8 years, and this capacity addition of 1,00,000 vehicles per year is a step towards this goal,” Hisashi Takeuchi, chief executive officer at Maruti Suzuki, said in a statement. “It will help us serve our customers faster and enhance our overall capability to manufacture up to 23.5 lakh units per annum.”

Essentially, Maruti Suzuki wants to have at least five facilities onstream by the end of this decade, producing 40 lakh cars annually. While three plants—one each in Gurugram, Manesar and Halol in Gujarat—are operational, new manufacturing units are planned for Sonipat in Haryana and a yet undisclosed location in Gujarat.

On Tuesday, Maruti Suzuki shares rose 0.11% to Rs 12,862.70 apiece on the BSE, even as the benchmark Sensex ended the day 0.08% lower at 74,683.70.