ET Now Maruti's production of vehicles is nearing normalcy, says RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki. In an interview to ET Now, Bhargava says that his firm is not much short of 100% production. Edited excerpts:
ET Now: Maruti’s production was hit last month. It was restarted just this week itself. By when do you expect the full normalcy to return after Subros plant fire?
RC Bhargava: We are near normalcy. We are not very much short of 100% production and I think in the next couple of weeks or so, we should be getting more or less to 100% production and the total shortfall which we have had which is around 30,000 vehicles, we expect to make up in the course of the next few months.
ET Now: What are the plans to ramp up the Baleno production so that waiting period comes down and how has been the response, now that you had a couple of month to digest it, how has been the response to Brezza?
RC Bhargava: Yes, I know that is unfortunately true that many times we have had this waiting list problem both for the Baleno and the Brezza. We will be stepping up production beyond what was originally planned.
But I do not think it is going to solve the waiting list period during the financial year 16-17. I think 17-18 should see something better happening because Gujarat will become available.
ET Now: Could you give us an update on the Gujarat plant and by when is the production expected to start?
RC Bhargava: No, the Gujarat plant is very much on schedule and we do expect to get production going in Gujarat early in 2017.
ET Now: And what about mission 2020 and the two million sales target that you have set out? Is that pretty much on track?
RC Bhargava: No we have not changed the mission. We are very much pushing it but getting to that target, of course, is partly in our hands but partly it also depends what happens to the rest of the economy.
ET Now: You have been a market leader in the small and the compact cars, but this segment is now increasingly coming under pressure. Kwid for example, or a few others... what is the strategy to mitigate competitive risk especially from the smaller companies?
RC Bhargava: The problem is our overall capacity. We are running to absolutely full capacity and more than full capacity. If I increase more in the entry level segment, I will have to reduce something in the upper segments including the Baleno and the Brezza.
We have to find a way of balancing all these segments within the capacity available.
ET Now: You have recently started the production of the commercial vehicles as well and large ones at that. What are the plans there?
RC Bhargava: At the moment, it is very much experimentation start up that we just do not have the capacity of making any large volumes here. So it is to an extent the whole problem is of capacities and I think without Gujarat, if we get successful models like we have been getting, this problem will persist.
ET Now: Maruti’s production was hit last month. It was restarted just this week itself. By when do you expect the full normalcy to return after Subros plant fire?
RC Bhargava: We are near normalcy. We are not very much short of 100% production and I think in the next couple of weeks or so, we should be getting more or less to 100% production and the total shortfall which we have had which is around 30,000 vehicles, we expect to make up in the course of the next few months.
ET Now: What are the plans to ramp up the Baleno production so that waiting period comes down and how has been the response, now that you had a couple of month to digest it, how has been the response to Brezza?
RC Bhargava: Yes, I know that is unfortunately true that many times we have had this waiting list problem both for the Baleno and the Brezza. We will be stepping up production beyond what was originally planned.
But I do not think it is going to solve the waiting list period during the financial year 16-17. I think 17-18 should see something better happening because Gujarat will become available.
ET Now: Could you give us an update on the Gujarat plant and by when is the production expected to start?
RC Bhargava: No, the Gujarat plant is very much on schedule and we do expect to get production going in Gujarat early in 2017.
ET Now: And what about mission 2020 and the two million sales target that you have set out? Is that pretty much on track?
RC Bhargava: No we have not changed the mission. We are very much pushing it but getting to that target, of course, is partly in our hands but partly it also depends what happens to the rest of the economy.
ET Now: You have been a market leader in the small and the compact cars, but this segment is now increasingly coming under pressure. Kwid for example, or a few others... what is the strategy to mitigate competitive risk especially from the smaller companies?
RC Bhargava: The problem is our overall capacity. We are running to absolutely full capacity and more than full capacity. If I increase more in the entry level segment, I will have to reduce something in the upper segments including the Baleno and the Brezza.
We have to find a way of balancing all these segments within the capacity available.
ET Now: You have recently started the production of the commercial vehicles as well and large ones at that. What are the plans there?
RC Bhargava: At the moment, it is very much experimentation start up that we just do not have the capacity of making any large volumes here. So it is to an extent the whole problem is of capacities and I think without Gujarat, if we get successful models like we have been getting, this problem will persist.
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