Synopsis

Suzuki Motor Corporation plans to halve vehicle development times by 2030 as it overhauls manufacturing and engineering processes, targeting 30% higher development efficiency and 50% greater factory productivity. The Maruti Suzuki parent also aims to raise India’s annual production capacity to 4 million vehicles from 2.9 million currently.

New Delhi: Japan’s Suzuki Motor Corporation - parent company of India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki - plans to cut its vehicle development times in half by 2030 to bring new models to market faster by overhauling manufacturing processes.

Suzuki is targeting improving development efficiency by 30% compared with FY20 levels, while boosting factory productivity by 50% above the standards set at its flagship Manesar plant in Haryana.

“As a challenge to become a company that can keep pace with the speed of change, while halving the new model development period, we will improve development efficiency by 30%, and increase production efficiency by 50%,” Toshihiro Suzuki, President, SMC, said at the company’s Technology Strategy Briefing 2026 on Friday.

The company, however, will retain a multi-powertrain strategy rather than betting solely on battery electric vehicles (BEVs).

Suzuki identified Japan and India as the key centres of its global business foundation. Technologies developed in Japan will be shared with Maruti Suzuki India and adapted for individual markets. India will be strengthened as a manufacturing and export hub, he said.

The company is targeting commissioning annual production capacity of 4 million vehicles in India from FY30, up from 2.9 million units currently. Current output was recently boosted by a fourth production line at Hansalpur, Gujarat, which brought that facility’s annual capacity to one million units. Subsidiary Maruti Suzuki operates plants in Gurugram, Manesar and Kharkhoda, with plans for a new site in Sanand.

The shorter development cycle will change the way Suzuki makes vehicles. Instead of completing planning, design, production engineering, quality and procurement sequentially, these functions will work concurrently from the early stages of a vehicle programme. Suzuki also plans to deepen digital engineering and expand modularisation, allowing modules to be shared across products and integrating development and manufacturing more closely.

Suzuki said, “This is not just about improving efficiency or cutting costs. The company’s objective is to pursue different technologies simultaneously and respond quickly to market changes.”

The approach will help support Suzuki’s multi-pathway powertrain strategy. The automaker said that differences in electricity generation, renewable energy, charging infrastructure, fuel availability, and government policy mean a single propulsion technology cannot apply universally across all markets. Suzuki will continue developing BEVs and hybrids alongside internal-combustion-engine, compressed natural gas, flex-fuel and carbon-neutral-fuel technologies.

“Rather than rolling out the same system uniformly, we need to provide mobility suited to the realities of each region and its infrastructure,” Chief Technology Officer Katsuhiro Kato said at the briefing. Depending on regional requirements, Suzuki will combine BEVs, hybrid electric vehicles and carbon-neutral-fuel vehicles, he added.

This builds on the technology roadmap Suzuki laid out in 2025, when it detailed its “Right × Light Mobile Tech” strategy. That included lightweight vehicle bodies, efficient ICE and carbon-neutral-fuel technologies, battery-lean BEVs and hybrids, and its SDV Right approach. It had also said its Super Ene-Charge hybrid system was under development and that it was working on new high-efficiency engines.

Suzuki said this year it will bring these technologies into products such as hybrids, Super Ene-Charge, newly developed direct-injection turbo engines, the lightweight S Light architecture and SDV Lite, combining them according to individual markets and use cases. The EV strategy will similarly focus on what Suzuki calls a “lean-battery” approach. Under this model, the automaker plans to develop common battery systems — including packs, thermal management, and controls — in-house, while sourcing regional cell variants based on local needs.

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