Suzuki plans $1.29bn Gujarat investment

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. plans to invest at least Rs 9,000 crore ($1.29 billion) to build a new car plant in Gujarat. The infusion of fresh funds would boost Suzuki's combined investment in India to as much as Rs 30,000 crore ($4.29 billion). Suzuki will use the funds to build three assembly lines with a total annual capacity of 750,000 vehicles, an engine manufacturing unit, buy land, build a full-fledged research and development (R&D) centre in Rohtak (Haryana) and set up a lithium-ion battery unit in Gujarat in alliance with Denso Corp. and Toshiba Corp. Suzuki's sharpening focus on its biggest bastion, India, follows the auto maker's decision to pull out of big markets such as the US. In addition to the Gujarat plant, factories owned by Maruti Suzuki in Haryana currently produce about 1.5 million units annually. The new expansion would, therefore, take Suzuki's total production capacity in the country to 3 million units. The investments towards building the new factory will be made in Ahmedabad district, close to Suzuki's existing factory in Hansalpur-Vithalpur area, said two Gujarat government officials. The state government officials said the company will add another 250,000 units of capacity to its existing factory in Gujarat over the next few months before expanding it to 750,000 by 2020. Post 2020, the company will roll out vehicles from the new facility, they said.