In Conversation With Kenichi Ayukawa, MD and CEO Maruti Suzuki India

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he is the NDTV automotive man of the year for 2017 and today we are going to talk to him about a brand new product that's come to the market I'm speaking about mr. Kenichi ru cava the managing director of Maruti Suzuki India and the new car is a blockbuster it's the new generation of the desire sedan which drops its Swift name and steps in with a third generation observe that is bigger bolder and has big plans as well thank you a color sample you very much and congratulations on the thank you very very precious as I said desire the name itself is so big it's such a big module for you the first two generations have already sold 1.3 eight million cars which is a staggering number so obviously from the new generation you have big expectations of course fortunately as we've said that the desire becomes growing up very well past 10 years something like that used to be other way touch to the streets Tony but this time we dropped the statement because desire becomes independent moving it becomes such a big model in many ways I think you mentioned it on stage today that it took you by surprise to multi and you know all the people at Maruti by surprise the fact that it's done well is not you know something that now surprises us because it's a segment that's also done well but do you think the fact that it's also been able to hold on to its position is also a credit

how and when did you take the decision that for the new platform and the new generation you will do the sedan before the hatch I take it you know that is that the statistical you know serratus car discussion as you know that the music the double row into the global market but you know desired mainly focusing indian market that's why we have to try to develop the area to this movie the fact that this is not just a hatch with a boot the fact that you have re-engineered the car the a-pillar is different does this help that you know sort of drive it home the fact that you brought the sedan first to establish that it is all new that you've dropped the Swift's name so that is that part of the strategy

what about volumes because I think another thing that was announced today was before the launch you already have 33,000 booking not surprising but but the fact that now after the launch those numbers are just going to go up of course you still have high numbers on the Baleno you have high numbers on the vitara brezza TS so how much of the strategy also had to do with volume allocation

in the past you converse and we've seen a lot of flexibility when it comes to your production between the manager and the godown plants you know we've seen certain products being shifted or being done at both planet do you have the same set of flexibility with SMG as well

you announced today during the presentation that the investment for the desire model has been thousand crore rupee how much of that investment will be shared with the Swift panetta right or is this just for those desire this knife things some father that some some common pot there that's right there will be some possibly including that because I'm sorry they did there that we have to check that's okay but what I'm trying to say is that is obviously some some commonality between the data's so that is help in terms of getting the Swift out quicker you think

I want to ask you this because in the pre-launch we had the unveiling of the car and had the chance to speak with both Calculon and romance on and I was asking them the same question that two big decisions with the third generation that we've seen first is what we spoke about that the structure of the car is not exactly like the hatchback and the second is dropping that that names the swift name one is a big marketing decision and one is a big production decision how quickly they convince you to take this

and did it start fairly early in the process or was this what I mean to say is that obviously the new Swift was also being designed in Japan you always knew you had to do a new desire at what point did you decide that okay this car needs to be very different

now one thing about this segment everybody says is it's uniquely Indian so sub for meter and also the proportion etcetera is not always very attractive with the new car you've been able to take some of that away the disadvantage and you've given the car great looks it's got very sort of a premium styling and the proportion is very nice given that it now becomes a more attractive product visually and in term uses features do you think it has potential in other markets now more than in the past

and where I was going with this is that given the fact that this is such a popular model forget about the short term even a year or two years after this launch it's not as if you know you will not have a huge demand locally so when I talk about exports potentially how do you work that strategy into it because volume will just be so big even from a domestic demand perspective so how do you work in an export strategy when your domestic demand is so huge

and it makes the consolidation of your position even more strong but now that in February we've had the trial production beginning and now the actual production has begun in Gujarat how much of that pressure has already eased for you because the Baleno is a big model as well so yeah already are you seeing a huge advantage

the point I know that it was made by some journalists today about the government's move towards electric vehicles instead of hybrid vehicles and I get why they were asking that question it was obviously doing hybrid as the first step is easier than doing full electric but as all these decisions get taken and I know you said you're waiting for clarity from the government how quickly can you move on these decisions do you think