The A-Star will be the fifth world strategic model from Suzuki which means the same car can be manufactured simultaneously in other countries. Suzuki will sell the same car in Europe but under the Alto as well as under the Celerio names.
The car manufacturer will use the K-series engine for the gasoline driven car and the engine production will begin in October this year. The official said the A-Star has been positioned as an A2 premium segment car. The A2 segment has a 71 per cent share of the Indian passenger car market which is about 1.3 million units.
The official said the A-Star model will be the eighth car launched by the company in four years. He said time to market for Maruti Suzuki had come down significantly. Earlier, Maruti Suzuki used to take between two and three years to launch a new model.
The A-Star model is part of the Rs 9,000-crore investment plan spread across five years (ending 2010).
According to the plan, Rs 2,500 crore is being invested in setting up a diesel facility which will have the capacity to produce 3 lakh engines by 2010. Another Rs 2,500 crore is being invested for the Manesar plant for expansion and upgradation and the rest for setting up the K-series engine plant and for upgradation and expansion of the Gurgaon plant.
The A-Star will be the fifth car platform for Maruti Suzuki.
1 comment:
Post a Comment