NEW DELHI (AP) - India's largest car maker, Maruti Udyog, aims to increase its sales to 1 million units annually by 2010, a top company official said Tuesday.
Maruti is planning to invest $1.3 billion to build a new car plant, a diesel engine unit and a transmission facility in India, Maruti's chairman, S. Nakanishi, told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting in New Delhi. Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. holds 54 percent controlling stake in Maruti Udyog Ltd. Maruti is also looking to start exporting a small car to Europe in the 2008-2009 fiscal year, Nakanishi said.He added that Maruti aims to eventually export about 100,000 cars, but provided few other details of the plan. Maruti's current plant in the New Delhi suburb of Gurgaon can produce 600,000 vehicles a year. It is also building a new plant in nearby Manesar in Haryana state that is scheduled to begin production by the end of 2006. The plant will have an initial capacity to make 100,000 autos a year, which will be expanded to 250,000 units by March 31, 2009.