Suzuki Motor Corporation is in talks with the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for setting up its second two-wheeler plant in India. At present, its scooters and motorcycles roll out of a facility in Gurugram, Haryana, which has been home for over a decade now.
“We have some proposals which are being examined. These are predominantly from the South with Andhra Pradesh and Telangana proactively leading the way,” said Sajeev Rajasekharan, Executive Vice President, Suzuki Motorcycle India, the local arm of the Japanese parent.
A final decision will be taken in the coming months so that there is enough time to start work on the new plant and have it up and running over the next three years. By that time, Suzuki will have reached peak production capacity of one million units annually at Gurugram.
Advantage AP?
“The South is a large two-wheeler market and it makes sense to have a location there to complement our operations in the North,” added Rajasekharan. It now remains to be seen which State will eventually bag the Suzuki mandate though AP has the upper hand going by its recent track record of attracting a host of automotive brands.
The list includes Kia Motors, Isuzu, Apollo Tyres, Amara Raja Batteries with Hero MotoCorp also tipped to join the parade. Telangana is home to the ZF Technical Centre but still has a lot of catching up to do with AP. Eventually, Suzuki will take the final call and the choice will boil down to fiscal sops, access to a robust ancillary supplier base as well as a port (both of which neighbouring Tamil Nadu can comfortably offer).
Exports will become an important part of the Suzuki two-wheeler business plan for India as its role grows to become a critical manufacturing hub for the world. The company hopes to wrap up this fiscal with sales of five lakh units while targeting seven lakh for 2018-19 and going up to a million units by the end of this decade.
