Business environment is increasingly becoming uncertain and the company needs to be strengthened to deal with unanticipated disruption, Kenichi Ayukawa, Managing Director and Chief Executive, Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) has said.
“Policy stability and predictability are important to nurture the industry ecosystem. It helps industry gain efficiencies and get clarity on which targets and technologies to work on,” Ayukawa told shareholders.
Ayukawa was referring to the number of changes made either by the government or initiated by a directive from the Supreme Court. These included sales ban on diesel cars, move to BS-IV from BS-III and hiked cess on large cars.
Maruti Suzuki closed last year with a market share of 47.4 percent with sales of 1.44 million units and a growth of 11 percent compared to the previous year.
The car market leader further said that it is also in the process of acquiring 400-500 sites for leasing to potential dealers. The company is significantly expanding its sales and service reach in the next few years to deal with the challenge for the rise of other car makers.
Maruti Suzuki will set up 3,500 sales outlets and around 5,000 workshops in the next few years. This will be more than twice its existing strength.
Meanwhile, MSIL Chairman R C Bhargava stressed the need to keep pace with changing technologies. “Failure to keep to up with technological changes can have severe consequences for any company,” Bhargava added.
“You are aware of the agreement between Suzuki, Japan and Toyota, Japan to create a partnership to deal with issues. Toyota is the global leader in a number of patents held for hybrids and electric vehicle technology. I believe this agreement, which may reach finalisation in short time, will be of enormous benefit for the future of the company,” added Bhargava.
Bhargava also promised that Maruti Suzuki will ‘not hold back in introducing EVs as soon as we determine that the customer are ready to buy them’.
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