Maruti plans to set up design center in India
By agencies   |   Tuesday, 17 January 2006, 20:30 IST
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BANGALORE: Maruti Suzuki is planning to set up a complete automobile design center in India in the next few years. It would be the second biggest center in Asia. The design center will be part of the R&D center, which will come up as part of the expansion plan of the company in India. Last week, the company announced its second expansion plan, which entails an additional investment of $617.72 million. In the next five years, Maruti is planning to launch five new models including a diesel car. Sources from Maruti said, “The investments would be used to set up an center as well as to upgrade the existing facility. This additional investment is an extension of the $727.27 million investment announced earlier by Suzuki for setting up a passenger car and a diesel engine plant.” The company is planning to make India a hud for Suzuki’s small cars, in which the design center will play an important role in designing cars for the Indian as well as other countries in Asia. It has already started deploying some of its engineers to Suzuki Motor Corporation in Japan to get some experience in designing cars. Nearly 20 engineers from Maruti were sent to Hamamatsu, Suzuki's headquarters in Japan to co-design Maruti's latest car, Swift. Though the amount of investment for setting up the design center has not been disclosed. The company has earmarked $227.27 million towards setting up a diesel plant that would have the capacity to build 3 lakh engines per annum for both Maruti as well as Suzuki plants.

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