Maruti Suzuki to invest $1 billion in Toyota’s Karnataka plant

“Toyota's Bidadi plant's capacity is 3 lakh per year and the company is now availing only half of it,” Takayuki Kitagawa, the Japanese consul-general, was quoted in the media. “There is an idle capacity of 1.5 lakh at the plant and Maruti will make further investment to manufacture their cars at the facility.”

The two Japanese auto majors had in March agreed to jointly produce and sell cars in India. Maruti Suzuki had agreed to supply its popular models including Baleno hatchback and the Vitara Brezza compact SUV to Toyota, while the latter is to produce the Corolla sedan for Suzuki.

Maruti Suzuki and Toyota had also agreed to share their factories and dealer networks in India, enabling the former to use under-utilised facilities of Toyota in India.

A Japan External Trade Organisation official has been quoted as saying that Maruti – which has four plants in India – plans to boost its presence in the south. Over the next decade, it plans to boost its production capacity by 2.5 million vehicles in India.

Under the new deal between the two Japanese companies, Suzuki will supply about 25,000 Baleno’s to Toyota every year. The Baleno would be sold through Toyota’s India dealership, according to sources.

Maruti Suzuki, India’s largest automaker with an over 50-per cent market share, launched the Baleno in 2015 and has seen it emerge as a hugely popular model with sales of 15,000 units every month. It is produced at its Gujarat plant.