The chairman of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Osamu Suzuki is planning to embark on a surprise one-day visit to the country to finalise the operational strategy of its biggest worldwide subsidiary for the next fiscal. Industry experts believe that the senior company official will arrive to the country somewhere in mid March and will dedicate more resources for Maruti in assisting the operations of auto maker’s new innovative global strategy, ‘Small cars for a big future’.
Generally, the Chairman of Suzuki visits its Indian subsidiary during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company in September. However, in recent times, he has increased the number of visits to the country, owing to his personal interests in order to scale operations of his most booming global venture. Auto analysts anticipate that Maruti will now play a major role in Suzuki’s new development plans as he is now concentrating on fuel efficient small cars instead of luxurious sedans and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs).
On the same lines, the Managing Director (India) of Automotive Production Forecasting at IHS Global Insight, Deepesh Rathore was quoted as saying, “Analysts tracking the company say that after the abrupt withdrawal from the US, Suzuki is trying to find its feet in India. Suzuki Motor's big cars like the Kizashi and Escudo SUV (Grand Vitara in India) failed to excite customers in the US and other developed markets. It foresees itself as a small car specialist and India is perhaps the only market where it can replicate its success. So, Maruti is Suzuki's lifeline.”
Interestingly, during his last meeting with Indian executives, Osamu declared plans to introduce 10 new models from the Indian division, comprising hatchbacks, compact UVs and Light Commercial Vehicles (LCVs) during the next five years. Among these new launches, a number of models will be targeted to the overseas market, but would be made in India. It must be noted that after winding up its US operations, Suzuki said that the auto maker is getting away from the big auto markets of the world. He further added that the focus has been shifted to the Asian and other potential regions and “Taking into account the fact that we have no future outlook for making large vehicles, I think any re-entry to US would be extremely hopeless.”
