In order to introduce new cars to meet rising competition and upgrade its existing model line-up, passenger car market leader, Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) has stepped up its effort on the the research & development (R&D) front. It has increased its R&D strength by 45% to 430 engineers in the last three months and plans to take it to 1,000 engineers in the next three years.

MSI will have one of the largest automobile R&D facilities in India, once its new 600 acre Manesar facility comes up by 2010, which will develop next generation cars and engines for the global market. MSI’s parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC)has already announced a joint investment of Rs 7,000 crore for a new R&D setup and developing marketing infrastructure in India. It existing R&D facility at Manesar has already developed A-Star, its new car, which will debut in European market later this year.

Already close to 75 MSI engineers have been trained by Suzuki in Japan who have been developing R&D in recent years. They have so far contributed in complete design of SMC’s first world strategic model, Swift, the upgrades of Zen, WagonR, Omni, and preparing SX4 sedan for the Indian market. SMC has enmarked an investment of Rs 17,000 crore for India in the next three to five years. Beside the marketing infrastructure and a new R&D centre, it will be investing Rs 9,000 crore in manufacturing operations to take its total production capacities to one million units by 2010.