Maruti Suzuki has been facing a problem of plenty over the last couple of years or so. While the company is happy with the overwhelming demand for models like the Baleno and newly launched Swift along with the new Dzire and Vitara Brezza, the huge demand has led to sizeable waiting periods for most of these models. Maruti Suzuki has been grappling with excessive demand.
However, as things stand now, waiting periods may finally reduce for some of the models. The Baleno is produced largely at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki. This plant runs at its full capacity. The Baleno is also produced at the Suzuki plant in Gujarat where only one production line is operating. This should reach its full capacity of 2.5 lakh units by year-end according to the Chairman at MSIL, RC Bhargava.
The second line should be fully functional by January 2019 while the third line should be operating by April 2020 according to him. Each line will dish out 2.5 lakh units, thereby contributing a total of 7.5 lakh units to the company tally from Gujarat alone. Both plants at Manesar and Gurgaon are running at their full capacities already with no immediate expansion plans on the anvil according to Bhargava.
The company has succeeded in lowering waiting periods for the Baleno to around 4 months. The demand is still amazing considering that the car launched around three years back. The waiting periods have also come down hugely for the Dzire and Vitara Brezza although some models of the Swift still have huge waiting periods touching almost 9 months. Maruti Suzuki has stated that 1.10 lakh people are now waiting for new cars as compared to 1.25 lakh people 3 months earlier.
