Maruti Suzuki is expected to invest around Rs 45,000 crore to double its production capacity to 40 lakh units annually in the next eight years, company chairman R.C. Bhargava said on Tuesday.
The company will also take up suggestions by shareholders for a stock split to its board for consideration, he said while speaking at the annual general meeting of the car maker.
The company named Schneider Electric executive Arnab Roy as chief financial officer from January 1, 2024.
Roy will replace Ajay Seth, who is retiring on December 31 after serving as the CFO since 2005. Seth will remain a member of the executive board.
In his virtual address to the shareholders, Bhargava said the company has reached "two million production and sales in 40 years and is now preparing to add two million in the next eight years" while also more than doubling the turnover in its third phase.
"The era before us is going to be a very uncertain era, a very challenging era. Putting up these 2 million cars itself will cost us something close to Rs 45,000 crore. It depends on how inflation goes but at the moment we estimate the cost of about Rs 45,000 crore for 2 million cars," Bhargava said.
Under Maruti 3.0, the company is targeting 28 different models by 2030-31.
As the global auto industry strives for carbon neutrality, Maruti Suzuki will deal with a lot of technologies, including electric vehicles (EVs), hybrids, CNG, ethanol-blended and the use of compressed biogas as it is difficult to predict what will happen in the next eight to 10 years in terms of technologies.
Bhargava had earlier told the shareholders in the company's annual report that "our first phase was when we were a public enterprise. The second phase ended with the Covid pandemic, and the Indian car market became the third largest in the world".
Responding to a query by a shareholder on the stock split, Bhargava said,"We will again take it up in the board. I accept that it will certainly increase the ability of people to trade in shares because the price of the share is around Rs 10,000."
The Maruti stock closed at Rs 9,621 on Tuesday, up 0.27 per cent, on the BSE.
Maruti also announced a dividend of Rs 90 per share, the highest ever in the history of its operations in the last 40 years.
When asked if Maruti Suzuki hasn't been late in its EV initiative, Bhargava said, "Yes, we are behind some companies in launching EV but that does not mean that we are late in the market or that when we are coming in 2024-25, we will have in any way damaged our ability to get an adequate market share."
He said the management and all its people, engineers and Suzuki Japan, "have all carefully assessed the total environment for electric vehicles in India" and what has now been planned is for the production of six models between 2024-25 and 2030-31 which will "give us a very good position in the market".
Bhargava said the company is making efforts to strengthen its presence in the SUV segment after witnessing a dip due to the decline in demand for small cars.
"We were essentially a small car manufacturer and we have to now adjust to the fact that because of regulatory and other factors, small cars are coming down and the basket for the SUVs is going up. We are adjusting, and in the coming years we will make every effort to regain our market share."
