Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., India’s largest car maker by sales, Wednesday said its recall of up to 106,000 A-Star small cars includes about 30,000 hatchbacks supplied to Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.

Maruti, the local unit of Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corp., produces the A-Star at its factories in the northern state of Haryana. The same car is supplied to Nissan–which markets the vehicle in Europe as its Pixo model–under a contract manufacturing agreement.

“We have supplied a total of 50,000 A-Stars to Nissan till date,” R.C. Bhargava, Maruti’s chairman, told Dow Jones Newswires. “The Nissan part of it (the recall) should be somewhere around 30,000 units.”

Mr. Bhargava estimated the total cost of recalling the cars to replace a defective fuel tank part at between INR300 million and INR320 million.

“The costs are to be shared between Maruti and the vendor,” he said. “Of the total cost (of the recall), Maruti will have to spend 100 million rupees ($2.1 million) to 120 million rupees.”

Maruti said that there had been no customer complaints but an internal analysis had shown that when fuel was filled beyond a certain point, there was a possibility of leakage. About half of the faulty cars have been fixed. Vehicles affected were in a batch made up to 22 August last year. The company is replacing the fuel pump gasket and O ring on affected models.

Last year, the company exported about 100,000 A-Stars after first launching the line in India late in 2008. It sells 3,500 to 4,000 A-stars a month in India alone.

Maruti said in a statement: “At Maruti Suzuki, we constantly monitor quality of our products through feedback and internal analysis. In one such exercise in November 2009, we came across an anomaly reported in the fuel tank in some of the vehicles and by December 2009 we started contacting the customers by letter. These vehicles belonged to lot made until 22 August 2009 only.”

Maruti Suzuki India said on Thursday it is targeting to export 100,000 units of its small car A-Star . The company is aiming a total of 1,20,000 units to sell in the overseas market this financial year.

“Out of the total exports, A-Star alone will comprise one lakh units while the rest would be other models,” Maruti Suzuki India executive officer (marketing) Mayank Pareek told reporters in New Delhi

The auto maker also expects double-digit growth in April-October period this fiscal. “So far, our sales have been good and we will attain double-digit growth till October in this fiscal,” he added.

In July, the sales in the top cities have turned around despite the fear of weak monsoon, he said, adding that 44 per cent of its total sales has come from major cities.

“As of now, there is no impact of a weak monsoon on sales as we are selling not only to farmers but to other people also in the rural areas. But in the long term, it will definitely have an impact,” Pareek said.

The company currently has an inventory level of three weeks and is producing more to meet the upcoming festive demands. On the company’s diesel-engine plans, Pareek said it will expand the production capacity to 300,000 units per annum by 2010-11 from the existing 2,40,000 units.

The New Estilo

Maruti has dropped the Zen from the Estilo, powered it with its next-gen K-series petrol engine, introduced a new cable-type transmission and advanced gear-shifting technology, and redone the exterior for a sportier look.

The new Estilo complies with Bharat IV emission norms. The car’s revamp, excluding the engine, cost Rs 120 crore, according to Mr I. V. Rao, Managing Executive Officer, Engineering, Maruti Suzuki.

The car’s sale had averaged 3,000 unit a month last year.

The car would be considered for export to Indonesia, where its earlier version had done well. For now, however, the Estilo is not headed to Europe.
CNG cars

With Bharat Gas IV emission norms coming into effect in 13 cities, Maruti is working to upgrade its car portfolio.

Mr Pareek said that encouraged by the gas finds in the KG basin, Maruti is betting big on the popularity of CNG (compressed natural gas) vehicles and its R&D team is working on CNG models.

Maruti is to also raising its diesel engine plant output to three lakh units by FY2011 from 2.4 lakh units now.

Mr Pareek also dismissed concerns that the deficient monsoons would affect sales in small towns. While a bad monsoon did affect the economy at large, till the impact on sales had not been significant, he said.

The rural consumer isn’t just the farmer but also the primary health worker, the teacher and the shopkeeper. “In July, we actually saw a turnaround in the top cities, despite the deficient monsoon,” he said. Top cities account for 44 per cent of Maruti’s car sales.

source : rediff.com & thehindubusinessline.com

BS reported that Maruti Suzuki planned to launch a 660 cc car in 2010. In Japan, the 600 cc range includes the Cervo Mode and the Alto. However, it also plans to upgrade the Omni engine to make it compliant with the latest emission norms and launch an executive sedan to compete with the Toyota Corolla and the Honda Civic.

Mr Shinzo Nakanishi MD of Maruti Suzuki said “The Suzuki 660 cc car is a good car for the Indian market, but it will take some years to launch it here.”

Mr Nakanishi said that several issues needed to be addressed before the 660 cc car was launched. One is the large investment Maruti has made on commissioning a plant for the K-series engine, which runs the A Star and soon to be launched Ritz. He said we have to recover this investment first. Once that happens, we’ll focus on the 660 cc car.

As per report, Maruti invested INR 1,800 crore in 2008-09 and plans to invest another INR 1,600 crore this year. A large portion of this money has been set aside for the development of the K-Series engine and a new plant in Gurgaon.

Second, to launch the 660 cc car in the domestic market, Maruti’s assembly lines in Manesar and Gurgaon will have to be recalibrated, which was not possible given the waiting period for models like the Swift and Dzire.

He said “Thirdly, the 660 cc engine needs to be upgraded to meet Bharat 4 norms, which push up the cost of the car.” He also made it clear that, contrary to earlier reports, the Omni will not be phased out when the Bharat 4 emission norms come into effect next year in around 11 cities.

Mr Nakanishi said “Every month, we sell about 7,000 units of the Omni on an average. That’s a good number and we would not like to let go of it. Our engineers are working to upgrade the Omni’s engine to meet the new emission norms, so the Omni will not be phased out.”

Maruti Suzuki India is planning to replace two of its most successful models—the WagonR, and multi-purpose vehicle, the Omni—an industry source said today.

A person close to both the projects said the new WagonR is also being developed on the Suzuki’s MR Wagon platform, but would be distinctly different from the existing model.

“The new model would also be a tall boy design like the current one,” he said.

The existing WagonR and Zen Estilo models of Maruti Suzuki are both based on the MR Wagon platform.

On replacement of the Omni, the source said the new van would be based on the multi-utility vehicle Versa platform and replace both the van and Versa models.

When contacted, Maruti Suzuki Executive Officer, Sales and Marketing, Mayank Pareek, said the company follows a policy of refreshing models every five years.

He, however, declined to give any details.

“We do not comment on future model strategies,” he said.

Maruti Suzuki has planned to launch Maruti Splash in India by early 2009. It will be another hatchback model from the company in the B+ segment. The car will be named as Ritz in India and will be an added model in the expanding small car product portfolio of Maruti Suzuki.

The Splash had replaced Wagon-R in the European countries but in India it will co-exist with its earlier model. It is expected to be priced around Rs. 4.5-5.5 lakh. Suzuki had showcased the model at the Paris Motors Show last year but since then the company had made some more than cosmetic changes in the car.

The new Ritz comes with bold styling and interiors that may remind of Swift or SX4. It will be available in 1.2 lit

re petrol and 1.3 multi-jet (DDiS) diesel engine. Higher roofline and wider tracks make the model spacious and offer enough leg room as well as head space.

Maruti Suzuki currently occupies more than 50 percent market share in the small car segment. Hyundai is the second largest small car manufacturer in India with its popular models like Santro and i10. India is the largest small car market in the world. 2009 promises launch for quite a few small cars from nearly all the car makers including VW, Ford, Hyundai, etc. as each one of them eyes to capture larger market share in the country.

Maruti Suzuki India (MSI), the country’s largest carmaker, plans to pitch its forthcoming compact car A-Star, to beat the slowdown. The company plans to offer the car at an introductory price of Rs. 3.47 lakh. The prices for other variants will go up to Rs 4.12 lakh.

“November and December are usually tough months for carmakers. Knowing that very well, we will be launching the A-Star so that it can bring excitement to the market,” according to MSI Executive Officer Marketing and Sales Mayank Pareek.

The company that is manufacturing A Star at its Manesar plant, is aiming to sell about 50,000 units in the Indian market and one lakh units abroad.

MSI claims that according to the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the A-Star delivers a mileage of 19.59 km per litre.t is powered by the company’s new K10B 998 cc petrol engine and will be rolled out in three variants.

Manufactured at its Manesar plant, the company is aiming to sell about 50,000 units in the Indian market and one lakh units to be exported.

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Source : Team-BHP

NEW DELHI: Maruti seems to have come off age after more than two decades it was formed as a joint venture between Japan’s Suzuki Motor and the
Indian government. The company is set to develop an all-new model from scratch by 2011 using its Indian engineering strength.

IV Rao, managing executive officer (engineering) of Maruti Suzuki, told TOI that the company has been strengthening its engineering and design competencies as it plans to nearly double its engineering workforce by 2010 from 560. “We would like to close March next year with 740 engineers and reach 1000 by 2010,” Rao said.

And speaking about the future direction for the Indian R&D team, he said, “Going forward, we would be working on a model that is conceived, developed and designed at Maruti by its own engineering team.” Rao’s statement indicates the fast-growing stature of Maruti within Suzuki’s overall global plans and clearly brings out the future strategy of the Japanese carmaker.

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Source : Team-BHP

INDIA’S CAR leader Maruti Suzuki is thinking of entering the upper mid-size segment in Indian car market. The company has dominated the small car segment in India, but now wants to concentrate on other segment too.

Maruti plans to introduce a new model named Kizashi from the D-segment by 2009. In India, this will be the first car to be enhanced with four-wheel drive in its class.

Maruti Suzuki has already gained success with its models in the A-segment and B-segment cars in India. Kizashi was first showcased at the Frankfurt Motors Show 2007 and was displayed at the Delhi Auto Expo 2008. This new model is powered with an advanced four-valve turbo-fired 2 L petrol engine that follows Euro V norms.

The price of the car has not been confirmed yet, but it is expected to carry the price tag of Rs. 10 lakh or above, and would be competing with other car players like Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla Altis, Hyundai Sonata, Skoda Octavia, and Volkswagen Jetta.

Source:Autoblog.com