RC Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki has said that if the company has to expand its production capacity, it would consider setting up a new plant in southern India as it would be closer to the market and would be beneficial for exports as well.

Maruti Suzuki currently has production facilities in Manesar and Gurgoan in Haryana and Hansalpur, Gujarat. The combined annual production capacity of the Manesar and Gurgaon plants is 15.5 lakh units. The company aims to double it by 2030. The Gujarat plant, owned by Suzuki, has a capacity of 2.5 lakh units per annum, which will be expanded to 7.5 lakh units per annum by 2020.

South India is fast emerging into a new auto hub. Brands like Kia and Hero MotorCorp are setting up plants in Andhra Pradesh, while Hyundai, Renault-Nissan and BMW have production facilities in Tamil Nadu. 

Source: Hindu Businessline

Groupe PSA (Peugeot) and Avtec Ltd (a CK Birla Group company) have inaugurated a greenfield plant in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The facility will manufacture and supply powertrains for the global and domestic automotive market. The construction of the facility started in November 2017.

The plant is owned by PSA Avtec Powertrain Pvt. Ltd. - a 50:50 joint-venture created in 2017 between Groupe PSA and Avtec. The initial manufacturing capacity of this plant will be 3,00,000 units per year for transmissions and 2,00,000 units for BS-VI compliant engines. The plant will manufacture gearboxes in phase 1 to support the Indian as well as international markets.

The company claims that the peak investment in this manufacturing setup would go up to Rs. 600 crore and is expected to generate a direct employment of around 800 people. The company also claims that it will employ a significant level of localization in an attempt to keep costs competitive.
 

Balkrishna Industries Limited - manufacturers of off-highway tyres, is setting up a production facility in the US at a cost of US$ 100 million. The new plant will have a yearly production capacity of about 20,000 MT. The company is targeting the replacement market as well as Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the US.

The project is currently in its initial stages and the company is looking for suitable land. Land acquisition is said to take place by the end of Q1 2019 and construction of the facility is expected to be completed by March 31, 2021.

Balkrishna Industries already has five production units in India. The American plant would be their sixth unit and the first production unit outside India. Europe is one of the company's biggest markets, accounting for more than half of its overall turnover.

VE Commercial Vehicles (VECV) - the joint venture between Volvo and Eicher, has announced plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh with an investment of around Rs. 400 crore.

The facility will have an initial capacity of 40,000 units. The Madhya Pradesh government has already allocated land for the plant and construction is expected to begin soon. The company is aiming to make the factory functional in the next 18 months.

This year, VECV is celebrating 10 years of partnership between the Volvo Group and Eicher Motors. In the last decade, the company registered an average annual growth of 18% with a turnover of Rs. 10,200 crore in 2017-18.

The upcoming factory will be its second manufacturing facility in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The Pithampur facility, near Indore has a capacity of 90,000 units at present.

According to media reports, Maruti Suzuki is planning to relocate its 35-year old factory in Gurgaon to a new location. The plant is currently located in the heart of the city and hundreds of trucks enter and leave the premises daily, which is causing a lot of traffic congestion.

Maruti Suzuki has sought 1,292 acres of land at Sohna on the outskirts of Gurgaon. It is said that the area will also house Maruti's component vendors. The relocation will be done in a phased manner and the company is currently coming up with a plan to move out of the old factory without disrupting production.

The Gurgaon plant has an annual capacity of 7 lakh units. Maruti has another manufacturing unit at Manesar just outside Gurgaon. It has a production capacity of 8 lakh units. The company is planning to setup a new factory in Gujarat to achieve its sales target of 50 lakh vehicles by 2030.

Source: Business Standard

According to a media report, the Chinese government is considering imposing restrictions on car companies investing in new manufacturing plants to increase their production capacities. As per a draft of the policy, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) is looking to restrict not just the conventionally powered cars, but also electric and hybrid vehicles.

According to a study conducted in 2017, China has 14 million vehicles per annum idle capacity out of an installed 42.8 million units.  The country has around 80 different automotive groups and more than 180 vehicle assemblers, most of them running much lesser production than possible.

NDRC would instead prefer carmakers to consolidate this underutilized capacity than allow new projects. Some of the conditions imposed in the draft rules include above-average capacity utilization, R&D spends, plans for electric and hybrid cars, exports, amongst others.

Toyota, Nissan and Geely are some of the manufacturers looking to add capacity while Hyundai is already exploring ways to utilize their idle capacities in China.

Source: Reuters

Force Motors is set to buy the MAN Trucks factory located at Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh for an undisclosed amount.

It has been reported that MAN Trucks India and Force Motors have entered into an agreement wherein the latter will acquire the manufacturing facility and continue to employ the existing workforce. According to Force Motors, the complete transfer of the facility is expected to take place by October 2018.

Earlier this year, it was reported that MAN Trucks had decided to stop all projects in India. The VW Group company had also halted its BS-VI projects and stopped purchasing components from suppliers as it started winding down its operations. The plant has an annual capacity of 9,000 units and produces trucks ranging from 16 to 49 tonnes.

Source: Economic Times

Benelli - the Italian motorcycle brand owned by China's Qianjiang Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Telangana to setup a new manufacturing facility near Hyderabad.

The factory will be built in 2 phases at Pochampally. The first phase will be spread over 3 acres and will be handled by the company's strategic partner Adishwar Auto Ride India - Mahavir Group. It will be completed by October 2018. The second phase will be spread over 20 acres and consist of a larger setup.

Last month, Benelli parted ways with DSK Motorwheels and partnered with the Hyderabad-based Adishwar Auto Ride India - Mahavir Group to provide sales, service and spares for Benelli customers.

Source: Economic Times

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) will be investing over $1 billion in Toyota's manufacturing plant in Bidadi near Bangalore.

According to a media report, Maruti and Toyota officials visited Toyota's Bidadi plant last week to discuss the investment. The factory has an annual capacity of 3 lakh units and is currently running at half its capacity. The investment will be used to refurbish the facility and configure the production lines to manufacture Maruti's models and make use of the remaining capacity of 1.5 lakh units. Production is expected to commence by 2022.

The move is expected to further boost employment opportunities in the region as Maruti's suppliers are also likely to set up manufacturing units at the Japanese Industrial Township in Tumakuru.

Maruti currently operates three manufacturing units in India. The company plans to increase its production capacity by around 2.5 million units by 2030.

Source: Deccan Herald

Mercedes-Benz has announced that it will invest Euro 500 million in the Smart plant in Hambach, France for capacity expansion. The German company also plans to manufacture future electric cars at this facility.

Moving towards electric cars, Mercedes-Benz plans to introduce 10 different electric cars by 2022. These electric cars are expected to contribute about 15-25% of the total cars made by Mercedes-Benz by 2025. Further, the Smart brand is expected to produce only electric cars from 2020.

Mercedes also plans to invest Euro 10 billion for the expansion of its electric car fleet and an electric battery production network across 6 plants including the Smart plant in Hambach and the lead plant in Rastatt, Germany along with plants in Kecskemet, Hungary, the BBAC production site in Beijing, the COMPAS plant in Mexico and Finland's Valmet Automotive.

The Hambach plant is operational since 1997 and makes the Smart brand of cars. Since 2012, the Smart EQ fortwo coupe and the Smart EQ fortwo cabrio are being made here. The investment will include a new body shop and surface treatment plant along with the expansion of assembly facilities and additional infrastructure. At present, the plant claims to being CO2-neutral as it procures all its electricity from renewable sources.