New Delhi: When the first Maruti 800 rolled out in 1983 from its factory in Gurgaon, then a sleepy and largely rural suburb of New Delhi, the only things Indian about the small car were the carpet, the battery and the tray on which it rested. Around 25 years on, 99% of the parts that go into the 800 are made in India.
Graphics: Jayachandran / Mint
On Friday, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd will lay the foundation stone for a 700-acre, state-of- the-art research and development (R&D) facility in Rohtak, Haryana. The company plans to spend Rs1,200-1,500 crore on setting up facilities including testing tracks, collision test areas, emission labs and a wind tunnel testing facility.
Behind this R&D investment is an ambitious objective: To design and build from scratch a car in India by 2012—the first for a foreign car maker.
From assembling a car that was almost wholly imported to developing one in India—albeit on an already existing platform—has been a long journey for Maruti. It is a story of steady incremental progress made by its engineers over the years; from localization to preparing cars for Indian conditions by changing suspension and air conditioning systems; and from effecting minor design changes to collaborating with their Japanese counterparts on designing entirely new vehicles.
Still, had it not been for an unexpected event in 1999, Suzuki Motor Corp. might never have started trusting Maruti’s engineers.
In April that year, when the Supreme Court decided to advance the implementation of Euro I emission norms, Maruti was caught by surprise. In a couple of months, it had to make sure that all its cars sold in New Delhi were Euro I compatible. At that time, New Delhi accounted for nearly one-fourth of the company’s sales.
Suzuki was unwilling to believe that Maruti’s engineers could modify the engines to launch the cars with the required technology. For Suzuki, it was an open and shut case; the company had never made Euro I-compliant cars without using fuel injection technology. Maruti, however, believed that it would be possible to do this with carburettor technology itself.
I.V. Rao, managing executive officer for engineering at Maruti, recalls how the company’s engineers rushed almost overnight to Japan. “We had a very tough meeting with our counterparts there,” says Rao. Tempers rose as both sides argued their case. Over the previous decade, Maruti had been collecting emission data from the 800, Esteem and Zen models, and on the basis of that it was able to convince Suzuki that it would be able to meet the requirements before deadline.
After three days of discussions, Suzuki agreed to allow Maruti to make the changes. This marked a turning point. “In research and development, people only believe in your capability once you actually do something,” says Rao.
But R.C. Bhargava, chairman and former managing director of Maruti, recalls: “Suzuki was never convinced we could do this. They kept checking the cars periodically.”
The early years