Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has exhorted Maruti Suzuki — the largest passenger car maker in India — to mull moving its corporate headquarters to Gurugram, as most of its operational manufacturing units are in Haryana, and its newest facility will also come up in Kharkhoda in Sonipat.

Khattar was speaking at an event where agreements were signed between Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), and land worth 900 acres (which includes a 100-acre land earmarked for a manufacturing facility for Suzuki Two Wheelers) was handed over to the companies. Kenichi Ayukawa, the vice chairman of MSIL, clarifies the investment made for a two-wheeler plant is separate and will be announced in due course. The ₹2,400 crore spent to purchase the land was also exchanged on the occasion, which was the largest of its kind done in Haryana.

At a press meeting post the event, Khattar suggested that Maruti Suzuki should leverage its deep and strong ties with the Haryana government to invest in the state apart from automobiles, primarily in real-estate projects in the upcoming Global City project in Gurugram, which will be a high-end development project sprawling over 1,000 acres. Dushyant Chautala, the deputy chief minister of Haryana, has underscored the importance of the Global City project — highlighting that it will also spawn the biggest heli-hub, a one-of-its-kind facility in India spread across 25 acres. “This heli-hub will help Japanese executives of Suzuki to traverse Haryana to seamlessly reach its different facilities,” he explains.

RC Bhargava, the chairman of MSIL, did not comment on whether Maruti Suzuki would foray into real-estate, but when prodded on shifting the corporate headquarters — currently off Nelson Mandela Marg in New Delhi — he says that the company will consider the offer. “Now that he (Khattar) has invited us, we will deliberate on this. Our corporate headquarters can’t be uprooted overnight and shifted,” he tells.

Bhargava also clarifies the new facility in Kharkhoda will not be used for manufacturing EVs. “If the unlikely, extreme scenario happens that our Gujarat facility won’t be able to cater the demand for EVs, then we might use our Kharkhoda facility for EVs,” Bhargava tells the media.

Bhargava has also said that the Kharkhoda facility will reach its full capacity in eight years, which according to him, would be around a million cars annually. He also claims that once ready for production, the facility would also become India’s largest automobile manufacturing facility. In a post-pandemic, post Russia-Ukraine conflict world, Bhargava says the deep localisation is the need for the hour to achieve aatmanirbhata, or self-reliance. “We must increase manufacturing, increase growth and quality, and reduce costs. The contribution must come from the supply-chain largely—be it from tier I, tier II, and tier III locations. Time is a major factor of cost,” he explains.

The octogenarian chairman has been vocal about the eroding entry-level segment in India—which he calls Bharat—has also taken this opportunity to caution first-time car buyers to defer their plans of buying a car, due to inflation. “In the last three years, the entry-level car market share has shrunk by 28%," he tells. The mandate of fitting six airbags in cars, according to him, will further wreak havoc in an already troubled sector. “All policymakers need to look at what is happening and recognise that there is a Bharat market and there is an India market,” he adds.

Khattar has also taken this opportunity to highlight how the government was able to bring Maruti Suzuki on board with the hiring of 75% employees on a domicile basis in Haryana. “We held discussions with the stakeholders, clarified their doubts, and even conceded to their demands. The original cap of hiring people with salaries upto Rs 50,000/month was met with apprehension because it could also include skilled, semi-skilled workers who might not be available in Haryana, or the company might have to upskill them. It’s why we reduced the cap to Rs 30,000/month and reduced the domicile-basis period to five years, from the originally planned 15 years,” he explains. Chautala had earlier said that this move would decrease transportation costs and housing costs.

Maruti chairman RC Bhargava

Move corporate office to Gurugram: Haryana CM to Maruti Suzuki