Maruti’s top boss says he’s preparing to make 4 million cars a year

Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest car manufacturer, is preparing to be nearly twice its size.

Chairman RC Bhargava said he’s preparing the company to produce 4 million cars a year by 2030, compared to the current 2.25 million units across its plants in Haryana and Gujarat.

The aim is to incentivise employees and convince them that their lives would be better if the company became more competitive and cost-efficient, Bhargava said at the CNBC-TV18-Zetwerk Smart Manufacturing Summit in New Delhi.

Interestingly, Hyundai makes, on an average, ₹8.29 lakh per car sold, compared to Maruti’s nearly ₹5.8 lakh. The EBITDA per vehicle for Hyundai India was ₹1.15 lakh, compared to Maruti’s nearly ₹56,000 in FY23.

EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

The company has also been losing market share in small cars, which it had dominated for decades.

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More importantly, Maruti has relatively slow in making the pivot to electric vehicles. Chairman Bhargava is not convinced that EVs would be the primary choice for Indian car buyers — a view that he repeated today (February 29).

“I don’t think EVs in India can ever become the main choice for car buyers,” he said. In 2023, a little over six vehicles in every 100 sold in the country are electric, according to a Care Ratings estimate.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki have underperformed compared to its listed peers Mahindra and Mahindra as well as Tata Motors in the last one year.