As the demand for the diesel engines increases, Maruti Suzuki might increase the capacity to manufacture the diesel engines beyond its initial plan of 700,000 units by the year 2014. The chairperson announced the possibility on August 28, 2012.
R C Bhargava at the company’s annual general meeting said, “We should have a total capacity of 700,000 diesel engines by 2014. We are examining if this needs to be ramped up further”. At present Maruti Suzuki has a capacity to make 300,000 diesel engines and it also sources another 100,000 from Fiat.
The company will be investing another 17 billion rupees to set up a diesel engine plant which is expected to begin production by the mid of 2013. The consumers in India go for diesel cars due to the big impact on the inflation and it is also cheaper than petrol, which costs 73% more.
Due to the huge price gap, the demand for the diesel cars has gone up and the companies have ended up selling the petrol cars at highly discounted rates and do not even have any waiting period. Bhargava added that 700 of the 1,000 workers at the violence hit plant at Manesar have joined work and full production is expected to resume in a short time.
Photo Credits: Bharath Autos
