Swaraj BaggonkarMoneycontrolSuzuki-controlled home-grown carmaker Maruti Suzuki is sprucing up its product development capabilities, aiming to become an end-to-end manufacturer and reducing dependence on its parent company. Maruti’s research and development (R&D) facility being set up at Rohtak in Haryana will be servicing customer requirements not just in India but Suzuki’s global markets, including Europe and Japan as well. “We (Maruti Suzuki) should be able to do end-to-end work. From product design and development to validation and testing. We want to develop that kind of capability”, said CV Raman, Executive Director (engineering), Maruti Suzuki India in an interaction with Moneycontrol. The Delhi-based company has so far spent Rs 1,900 crore since 2011 towards setting up the first phase of the R&D centre. The first phase was complete in November 2015. A full-fledged vehicle testing lab, a crash lab, race and testing circuits with more than 30 types and 33 kms of tracks and over 220 engineers have been established in Phase I. Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) claims that this facility is the only one of its kind in India set up to meet the stringent safety norms due to be implemented from October this year. A further Rs 1,900 crore is lined up for Phase II which will take care of transmission testing, EMC, right hand drive testing center, emission chamber, temperature control to name a few. There will be 10-12 new facilities coming up at the R&D center until March 2019, according to Raman. As per regulations laid down by the government, under the Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program, by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, all cars to be launched after October this year will have to meet the full frontal, offset frontal and side impact norms, which are on par with the European standards. Existing models have been given a further two years (October 2019) to upgrade to these standards. Meaning a current generation Maruti Suzuki Wagon R will have to mandatorily meet the set standards after October 2019. The BNVSAP is India equivalent of Euro New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). The new regulations will require cars to be crash-tested at the speed of 56 km/hr, have features like ABS, electronic stability control, seat belt reminder. Similarly, pedestrian protection safety norms, which has its own set of standards, are due to kick in in October 2018 for all new models and in October 2020 for all existing models. Such tests and resultant changes to the vehicle will push up the overall cost of the car. Maruti’s Ciaz, Ertiga, Baleno, S Cross, Brezza and Ignis already meet these norms said Raman. Gradually all of Maruti’s existing portfolio including three of its most popular cars – Alto, Swift and Dzire – will also be upgraded to meet these norms. The company has already made airbags and antilock braking system standard across each of its variants on all models sold through the Nexa outlet. It offers airbags as option on all other models. While the new R&D facility will provide more teeth to Maruti, it however does not fully make the car market leader fully independent from support from parent Suzuki. “MSIL and Suzuki Motor Corporation will continue to work on new projects jointly. They are ahead of us in terms of technology and because of that gap a collaboration will always take place between the two companies”, added Raman. The Vitara Brezza, sports utility vehicle, was the first model majorly developed in India by MSIL’s Indian engineers and classified as ‘Global Development’ by the company. In earlier experiments the company had done ‘Full Body Change’ for the Alto 800, ‘Face-lift, Co-design and Development’ for the Swift. (A visit to the R&D facility in Haryana was organized by Maruti Suzuki India Limited)
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