Now that the Nissan deal has fallen through, what does it mean for Maruti Suzuki?
When (Suzuki chairman Osamu) Suzuki was in India in September, he had made it clear that there were two parts to the Nissan deal. We were going to invest $2 billion in Manesar to produce 100,000 small cars for export to Europe. Nissan said it would pick up 50,000 cars from us for export, and that deal still stands. The second aspect about setting up a plant to manufacture 200,000 cars for Nissan’s export markets was still under discussion, but that won’t happen. • Super Cars • Gifts for Car Lovers Today 80% of your revenues come from compacts and small cars at a time when there is a lot of action in the luxury car segment. This segment is down 1%. It has grown with big companies and big launches, but where are the numbers to talk about? It is still the small car for the rest of the country. Will India emerge as a global hub for small-car production? India cannot be a major player in automobiles for quite some time. As a country we produce one million cars, but there are stand-alone com
