Click it and Unblock the Notifications
Suzuki Denies Platform To Volkswagen
Hinzo Nakanishi, MD and CEO of Maruti Suzuki India told that there is no possibility of platform sharing as the German Company's production and product development costs are very high and that could make Suzuki's business unviable. In fact, the association between the Suzuki and Volkswagen can only be extended up to sharing production facilities for contract manufacturing. The CEO of Maruti Suzuki also stated that there is a possibility of an original equipment manufacturing deal with Volkswagen, like the way we have with Nissan which sells hatchback A-Star as the Pixo in Europe.
This might have collapsed the German car maker's ambitions to expand business in India. Volkswagen's main target is to become the world's largest car maker and for that to come true, it must have a strong presence in emerging car markets like India. Initially, when Volkswagen purchased 19.9% stake in Suzuki, both companies had plans to produce vehicles by sharing platforms. But now, Volkswagen can only learn lessons from Suzuki in producing low cost cars, but may not capitalize on Maruti's frugal engineering.
But, we can still expect the two companies to make global announcements in the coming months. According to Mr. Nakanishi, the two firms are very big and it takes time for them to find synergy.
Earlier, the Volkswagen's top officials had visited Maruti's factories during May 2010 and also met the Suzuki's brass to explore synergies in product design and sharing of models. This may also include product testing, special projects and evaluation or part-designing.
Auto experts feel that Volkswagen would be interested in learning techniques from Suzuki's strong expertise in small car production in high volumes in a cost effective way, while in return, Suzuki will learn in getting Volkswagen's technology in smaller diesel engines.
Continue with Google