Flashback to 1983, the year India won the ICC Cricket World Cup: That year, the face of Indian mobility was about to change. In December 1983, the first Maruti 800 rolled off the line at the then Maruti Udyog plant in Gurgaon. The rest as they say is history.
What set this motion was the signing of an agreement between the government of India, Maruti Udyog and Suzuki Motor Corporation a year prior. At the signing of that agreement was RC Bhargava, chairman, Maruti Suzuki India and Osamu Suzuki, CEO, Suzuki Motor Corp. Forty years later, the two gentlemen now aged 88 and 93, respectively, met in Gujarat to celebrate their association for four decades and to oversee the laying of the foundation for two more plants – one in Gujarat for EVs and one with expanded capacity of a million cars in Haryana.
The event was attended by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
A day ahead of the event, RC Bhargava, in a candid conversation with the media, talked about the last 40 years and how the automobile industry in India has grown from about 40,000 cars a year at the time to over 2 million annually now. The year Maruti Suzuki launched in India it straight away took leadership position with 34 percent market share, which it has since grown and maintained at between 47 percent and 50 percent. Bhargava spoke about how mobility is changing in India, how the company managed to tap into many more buyer segments, future fuel options, the need for more participation from the private sector, the need for low-cost, reliable transport and why Suzuki chose Gujarat to set up its new plant in 2011 and further expand now. Watch the video for excerpts from the conversation.
