In an exclusive conversation with Bloomberg TV India, Maruti Suzuki India Chairman RC Bhargava says the life span of a new model has come down to about six years, much shorter than before, and that requires much more work on the R&D side.
In what way can the new models launched by Maruti Suzuki help revive demand and boost the economic growth?
The launches will help to a certain extent only. They can’t take away if the economy does not grow and if the job creation is very slow. Whatever you are going to do, you are not going to get high growth. It has to be backed by economic revival, lots of more people getting jobs and then growth takes place. So, I think we have to wait for that to happen before you can get sustained high growth. The new models will always help the company that has models, which people are excited about. And, therefore, that is where the market share question comes along because those companies that provide good models, which people want, will get a bigger market share. Some others will lose out and that’s what has been happening. So, I think that’s something that can continue. And why we are concentrating on new models is because the life of a new model today is about six years, much shorter than what it used to be. In that six-year period half way through you have to make minor changes and refurbishments and make the model look like a fresh product again. So, all of that requires much more work on the R&D side, many more engineers and many more facilities. With the Rohtak plant, we will be able to shorten the cycle because a lot of the testing work which is required before a model can go to the market had to be done in Japan till now. Now, we will have all the facilities to these tests here. It will shorten the time, reduce the cost and I think that will help us a little bit going forward.
In terms of sheer noise that you have made around the launches, you know the outreach could have peaked. Now would you be maintaining it going forward?
Very hard to say. You know our motto is always to say that everything can be improved. And that is what we keep telling all our people. That nothing is ever reached a stage of finality. And that nothing more can be done.