With the country’s passenger vehicle industry set to touch 60-70 lakh units per year by FY30-31, there is a need to review and re-align businesses to the much higher scale of operations, with an enhanced focus on sustainability, Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the annual session of Automotive Components Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA) here, Hisashi Takeuchi, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, MSIL, said, “This means the scale of operations will nearly double from the present levels. Our businesses will therefore need to be reviewed and re-aligned to the new and much higher scale of operations which will spread across multiple locations. At the same time, we need to find ways to make our operations sustainable and environmentally friendly.”

Besides meeting domestic demand, the industry is also optimistic about the growth potential of the export market, he added.

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Referring to the Prime Minister’s message on Tuesday, Takeuchi said the PM asked the industry to make concerted efforts on working on all powertrain technologies like ethanol, flex-fuel, CNG, BioCNG, hybrid-electric, electric and hydrogen.

“Since the Indian market is so diverse and wide, it is our responsibility to work on all these powertrain technologies to serve the environment. We also look forward to our component vendor partners to support us in all these powertrain technologies,” he said.

Takeuchi noted that developments around sustainability are happening globally, too, and these are leading to adoption of new technologies and fuels.

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“This presents a big opportunity, especially for the Indian auto component manufacturers, to diversify and grow business. To leverage the opportunity and simultaneously increase competitiveness, greater focus on capacity and capability is required,” he said.

To achieve this, he emphasised on strengthening local design and development capabilities for ‘Make in India’; having skilled human resources; strengthening environment, social and governance (ESG) capabilities to unlock greater value for our business; re-investing in core business for sustainable business operations; and strengthening risk management capabilities with higher scale, new technologies, multiple locations, and external uncertainties.

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