Maruti Suzuki to double the production capacity of Celerio

Overwhelmed by the response for the Celerio, Maruti Suzuki has decided to ramp up the production capacity of the hatchback to 10,000 units per month from the current 5,000. The Celerio has garnered more than 30,000 bookings since its launch and the waiting list of the car currently stands at three months for the manual version and six months for the automatic version. 

"The company is waiting for the reply of vendors by month end. The company is expecting that if it gets the clearances from vendors, then it will be able to increase capacity to 10,000 a month by July," said an ET Now report. 

Having discontinued the Zen Estilo and the A-Star, Maruti Suzuki currently has a surplus capacity of producing 17,000 cars a month which can be used for the Celerio. Maruti Suzuki has asked its vendors whether it would be feasible to increase the capacity to match the demand of the hatchback. Prices of the Maruti Suzuki Celerio start at Rs 3.76 lakh for the base LXi manual while the base LXi automatic is pegged at Rs 4.14 lakh. The Celerio is powered by the 1.0-litre K10 petrol engine, producing 67bhp and 90Nm of torque. 

Maruti Suzuki’s promotion campaigns for the AMT gearbox equipped Celerio seem to have done the trick as the car has been selling really well, managing to outsell the manual variant. Of the 20,000 cars delivered so far, the automatic variant makes up 52 per cent, almost double the company’s expectations. While Maruti Suzuki was the first to come out with the nomenclature, Tata has also been working on a similar technology which will soon be seen in the Nano, Bolt and the Zest. 

Source: ET