Suzuki floats new subsidiary in India to strengthen R&D

Suzuki Motor Corporation, the Japanese behemoth in automobile manufacturing, and the parent company of Maruti Suzuki India Limited, has incorporated a new subsidiary to enhance its research and development competitiveness and capabilities, says Toshihiro Suzuki, president, Suzuki Motor Corporation, at an event in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

"This new company is wholly owned by Suzuki Japan. We aim to strengthen our R&D competitiveness and capabilities in new technologies fields not only for India but also for the global markets," he says in his address. Furthermore, he says the company will strengthen its ties with Indian academic institutes and start-ups to develop diverse human resources.

Suzuki also highlights the strategic importance of India for the company. "In the last fiscal, Suzuki Group produced about 28 lakh automobiles all over the world. Out of those, more than 16 lakh units, or about 60%, were produced in India. Also, exports from India reached the highest ever record of about 2.4 lakh units last year. Today, India plays a significant role as a global automobile production hub in the Suzuki Group," he explains.

The event, which marks the commemoration of 40 years of the alliance between Maruti of India and Suzuki of Japan, was also attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and also witnessed a virtual address by his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida. “I consider that we owe this success to the understanding and support of the people and government of India. Recently, Indian economic growth has been further accelerating due to various assistance measures for the manufacturing sector guided by the strong leadership of Prime Minister Modi”, he says in his address.

Modi, in his address, highlights how the alliance between Maruti and Suzuki embodies the relationship India shares with Japan. "The success of Maruti-Suzuki also signifies the strong India-Japan partnership. In the last eight years, these relations between our two countries have reached new heights," he adds.

During the event, the Prime Minister also laid the foundation stones of two key projects of Suzuki in India—the Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility at Hansalpur, Gujarat, and Maruti Suzuki’s upcoming vehicle manufacturing facility in Kharkhoda, Haryana.

The Suzuki Motor Gujarat Electric Vehicle Battery Manufacturing Facility at Hansalpur, Gujarat, will be set up with an investment of around ₹7,300 crore to manufacture advance chemistry cell batteries for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, the vehicle manufacturing facility in Kharkhoda, Haryana, will have the potential to manufacture 10 lakh passenger vehicles per year—making it one of the most extensive passenger vehicle manufacturing facilities at a single site in the world. The first phase of the project will be set up with an investment of over ₹11,000 crore.