Maruti Suzuki is India’s largest automaker with a total of more than 50 per cent market share. Just few months ago, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota reached an agreement that it would partner to jointly produce and sell cars in India. While Maruti would get the Corolla to re-body and re-badge associating it along with itself, Toyota in turbo would use the sub-compact Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and the Baleno to build its own rebodied and rebaged versions. In the future, Toyota and Maruti Suzuki would also partner to co-develop new cars for India. And now as per the reports in the Deccan Herald, Suzuki is set to invest at least $1 Billion into the Toyota manufacturing plant in Bidadi just outside the city of Bengaluru. An interview in this regard was held to know about the potential development between Toyota and Maruti Suzuki and is awaiting a response for the same.

Currently, the factory is said to have a total capacity of approx. 1.5 lakh units a year, which can be easily increased once Suzuki brings investments to further modernize and expand facilities there. The investment is very likely to expand the production capacity of the factory somewhat considerably, much needed, especially considering the subcompact SUV and the sub 4-metre premium hatchback segment are the most sought after popular segment in the country in terms of sheer numbers every month.

According to the report, officials from Maruti Suzuki paid a visit the plant last week in order to discuss further and assess the investment and expansion of the Bidadi plant in Karnataka. While speaking,  the Consul General of Japan in Benhaluru, Takayuki Kitagawa said, “The company will bring its supplier ecosystem at the Japanese Industrial Township at Tumakuru. It will further fuel more investment and employment creation in the state.”

While the details of whether the new cars under the ‘JV’ built at the factory will be given badge of Maruti Suzuki or Toyota is still not known at all, a small percentage of the cars will also have electric or hybrid technology fit into it. Maruti Suzuki already has got two factories in India, both in the northern parts of India and has recently crossed the 20 Million benchmark with respect to overall group production availble. Having a factory or some sort of production facility in the southern part of the country will also greatly help reducing the overall delivery times for customers.

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