Car major Maruti Suzuki on Saturday said that it plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in diesel engine manufacturing facility at its Gurgaon plant to meet the demand for Swift and Desire models.
The company would manufacture 1.5 lakh diesel engines for Swift and Desire in the current year to meet the growing demand, Shashank Srivastava, chief general manager (marketing), said after launching the new model Ertiga in Madhya Pradesh.
To a question whether the hike in excise duty by 2 per cent had any impact on car sales, CGM said it was across the board for every sector. The car production in last FY was 26.2 lakhs, against 25.2 lakhs in FY 2010-11, he pointed out.
In the last three months of 2011-12, 50 per cent of the cars sold were diesel engine ones, which was much higher than the expected, he said.
To another question, he said the company would start exporting Ertiga to south east Asia, mainly Indonesia, by April end.
In the recent years, Multi-Purpose Vehicles have emerged as the fastest growing sub-segment among UVs (utility vehicles), with a growth of around 20 per cent, he said. MPVs presently account for around 10 per cent share of the Indian automobile industry, he added.
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