Maruti to hike Baleno production
Maruti Suzuki is planning to add 200 outlets during current financial year in India.
Hyderabad: Country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) on Tuesday said that it is ramping up production of premium hatchback Baleno to meet the current demand and reduce waiting period.
The company also said that its Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corp is expected to start pilot production at the Gujarat plant in the January-March quarter next year.
“We are making all possible efforts to de-bottleneck the lines and enhance production (of Baleno),” said R.S. Kalsi, executive director, (marketing and sales), Maruti Suzuki. “We have wonderful products in our portfolio like Baleno, S-cross, Vitara and Brezza, which are doing very well in the market. Waiting period is also there (for these vehicles),” he added.
Maruti Suzuki has over 45,000 outstanding bookings of Baleno and Brezza each. Baleno, launched in last October, has a waiting period of 6-8 months depending on the variant.
It has gradually doubled production of Baleno to around 12,000 a month in the past few months to meet domestic and export requirement. Maruti has started exporting Baleno to Japan from January this year.