India's top carmaker Maruti Suzuki has been working on setting up a 100,000 unit capable light commercial vehicle (LCV) production plant at Gurgaon. The new plant is likely to be used for the production of 'Super Carry' LCV vehicle that is expected to be launched sometime in first quarter of this year.
RC Bhargava, Maruti chairman, said to sources from Business standard, “The LCV project is on schedule, it comes every quarter to the board. The LCV market in India is very weak at the moment, so making a big show of it doesn’t make sense. We will have fewer dealerships. (Production) can go up to 1 lakh, but initial production will be much lower.”
The upcoming Super Carry vehicle is likely to be available in petrol as well as diesel trims. The petrol with optional CNG is likely to be powered by 1.2 liter engine, whereas the diesel trim is likely to be offered with 800cc engine. Gaurav Vangaal, Senior Analyst for light vehicle forecasting at IHS Automotive said, "The LCV segment is a different ball game altogether and a new entrant like Maruti should be cautious as the segment has been subdued for two years now. Even established products like Tata Ace and Mahindra Maxximo are struggling to maintain steady volumes."
