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Car maker Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) will commission its battery manufacturing plant at its car manufacturing complex in Hansalpur by 2020. The top company official informed that the construction of plant is progressing as per the schedule.
"The battery manufacturing plant is in advanced stage of civil infrastructure. It is expected to start production in 2020 as per schedule. At this lithium-ion battery plant, we will make batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles manufactured in India," said Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd here during an event at Mahatma Mandir on Thursday.
The event was organised to mark the beginning of the projects that were promised during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summits. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani unveiled the projects worth ₹1,66,347 crore of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2019.
"This facility will complement the Make in India mission, while meeting the electrification requirement of automobile industry," said Ayukawa.
MSIL is currently road-testing 50 electric vehicles in India. "We firmly believe that CNG and hybrid vehicles are most effective tool to reduce CO2. Suzuki will continue to introduce cutting edge hybrid vehicles with support from Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC). We will continue to support Government of India's ambitious Make in India programme," Ayukawa told the gathering adding that SML's selection of Gujarat as an investment destination for car manufacturing facility comes with a long term vision for India.
Maruti Suzuki started with its first manufacturing facility - plant A with 2.5 lakh cars capacity. "Plant B has just been inaugurated with 2.5 lakh vehicle capacity. The work is in progress for the third plant which is scheduled to be commissioned in 2020. With all three plant at Hansalpur facility, we will manufacture 7.5 lakh vehicles annually," added Ayukawa.
Over 65 auto component makers have set up plants at the Hansalpur area, while several more are expected to start their operations in the coming months.
Maruti Suzuki is also looking at strengthening presence of Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing (JIM) a joint initiative between the Government of India and Government of Japan to create a pool of skilled manpower for industries in India. Ayukawa further stated that besides the existing JIM at Mehsana, there is a plan to set up second JIM in Gujarat.
"In addition to JIM, MSIL has adopted 14 ITIs in Gujarat for skill development of youth for specialised training in Automobile sector. Further, an international automobiles Centre of Excellence (CoE) will come up in Ahmedabad in partnership with Gujarat Government. This COE will have annual capacity to trian around 3000 students," he said.
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