India: Maruti Suzuki To Invest $310 Million in Global R&D Hub

The new facility, Suzuki's first major R&D center outside Japan, aims to fully develop a car for the Indian market by 2012, and is scheduled to be completed by 2015. It will include test tracks, a crash-test facility, emissions labs, a wind tunnel and a durability testing center.

Eventually, Suzuki wants the Rohtak complex to serve as its global small-car development hub.

Suzuki Maruti, which controls about half the market in India, operates two assembly plants outside Delhi, in Gurgaon and Manesar, producing a dozen models for the local market. The locally developed and assembled A-Star hatchback, a derivative of the Suzuki Alto, is exported to Europe.

Inside Line says: Suzuki is the latest multinational automaker to ramp up investment in technical facilities in India, joining Renault, General Motors, Hyundai and Daimler in boosting local R&D capability. — Paul Lienert, Correspondent