Maruti Suzuki on Saturday said it plans to invest Rs 2,000 crore in diesel engine manufacturing facility at Gurgaon plant to meet the demand for Swift and Desire models.

The company would manufacture 1.5 lakh diesel engines for Swift and Desire in the current year to meet the growing demand, said Mr Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager (Marketing), after launching the new model Ertiga in Madhya Pradesh.

In the last three months of 2011-12, 50 per cent of the cars sold were diesel engine ones, which was much higher than the expected, he said. The company would start exporting Ertiga to South East Asia, mainly Indonesia, by April end.

In the recent years, Multi-Purpose Vehicles have emerged as the fastest growing sub-segment among UVs (utility vehicles), with a growth of around 20 per cent, he added.