Tata car may hurt us: Maruti

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) managing director S Nakanishi said on Wednesday that the company cannot manufacture a ₹1-lakh car and conceded that the company's market share could be impacted by the new entrant from the Tata Motors stable.

He said the company would bring a new product to the market every year. 'There are issues of labour costs, emission norms, safety norms and tax compliance. Every factor has to be accounted for and in our assessment it is not feasible to make a car at that price… May be our market share will be impacted if Tata Motors is able to do so,' Nakanishi said.

He ruled out any plans to slash prices of the Maruti 800. 'The motorcycle customer will look at the ₹1-lakh car option. Our target is to sell 1 million cars in the domestic market and export 2 lakh units by 2010,' he said.

The Maruti MD said the Concept A-Star would be manufactured at the company's Manesar facility from October this year and would be targeted largely at the export market. 'We plan to export 1 lakh units to Europe. The remaining 50,000 would be split between the non-European market, contract manufacturing for Nissan and the domestic market,' he added.

The Concept A-Star is the first concept car in which designers of MSIL's research and development team have been involved from the start of styling development. The car has a 1-litre Euro V engine.

Nakanishi said the Concept Splash would be manufactured next year and sold in the domestic market. He said the company had no plans to manufacture smaller diesel engines. 'The Fiat 1.3-litre diesel engine currently being used in Swift diesel can be used in Splash also,' he said.