"The production of a car is a bigger issue than finding a buyer to sell the car'

Despite economic headwinds, component shortages, loss of production, overall performance for Maruti Suzuki in FY23 has been much better, says Chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, R C Bhargava.

- R C Bhargava.

R C Bhargava, Chairman of Maruti Suzuki says despite economic headwinds, component shortages, and loss of production, the overall performance for Maruti Suzuki in FY23 has been much better. With the slew of new SUV launches in the last financial year, Maruti Suzuki will be looking at outpacing the market in FY23.

Speaking to media post FY23 earnings, Bhargava announced that the company has got an in-principle approval for an additional one million units capacity, which will call for an investment in excess of Rs 18,000 crore it plans to invest for Kharkhoda facility in Haryana.

Maruti plans to launch 6 EVs by 2030 and it expects its exports volumes to grow to 7.5 lakh units by the end of the decade.

Review of FY23

RC Bhargava spoke about how FY23 had been a much better year than the previous one, despite headwinds such as high interest rates, inflation, surge in commodity prices etc. He mentioned how the fluctuation in the semiconductor situation had caused a loss of production.

He recognised the role of the government and the Reserve Bank of India in tackling these issues in a manner that enabled the country to perform much better as compared to other countries.

RC Bhargava spoke about a major landmark of how they had crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore turnover, as a result of which profits have more than doubled and they have been able to declare the highest-ever dividend.

RC Bhargava said that they were just 34,000 vehicles shy of meeting the two million target, largely due to the non-availability of semiconductors.

On the prospects and challenges of FY24