Maruti Suzuki is projecting the Indian passenger vehicle industry to reach 5.3-5.4 million units this financial year, sustained by robust rural demand and momentum following the GST 2.0 rationalization. In this conversation with Autocar Professional at the SIAM Annual Convention, Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer – Marketing and Sales, Maruti Suzuki India, explains how balanced volume growth across both small cars and utility vehicles is driving the country’s largest automaker to expand manufacturing capacity and accelerate its multi-powertrain roadmap.
Backed by a massive ₹77,000 crore capital expenditure program—with annual investments up 40% year-on-year—Maruti Suzuki has commissioned two new assembly lines adding five lakh units of annual capacity to support upcoming launches, including seven new SUVs over the next five years. Banerjee details how strategic pricing helped the brand absorb commodity inflation, enabling a resurgence in entry-level nameplates like the Alto and WagonR while scaling utility vehicles to account for 32% of total company sales.
The discussion also delves into Maruti Suzuki’s multi-powertrain strategy—highlighting compressed biogas (CBG) as a carbon-neutral pathway for its dominant CNG fleet alongside upcoming compact electric vehicles—and breaks down regional demand trends, tight 16-day dealer inventory levels, and volume expectations across the festive corridor.
Watch the full conversation here.