The new Maruti Suzuki Alto K10 has been added to the company's profile of cars which come with an automatic transmission system, and to minimize the waiting period on these cars, Maruti is working with its supplier of the AMT kits to increase the production from 3,500 units to 5,000 units.

Speaking to our sister publication Autocar Professional, R S Kalsi, Executive Director, Maruti Suzuki, said, “The idea is not to wait for our supplier to first ramp up volumes and then get into AMT for a new model. We are working with our supplier to increase volumes so that the AMT is not provided in one model at the cost of the other.”

The Celerio with the AMT system, when it was launched had an initial waiting period of seven to eight months, and later dropped to three to four months, said Kalsi. He further added that once Magneti Marelli, which currently imports the kit, establishes its new manufacturing line for the AMT at Manesar, production will be stepped up still further as several new Maruti models will have AMT variants.

“We have a plan that over the next one year, we will bring AMT manufacturing here in India. Right now, it is being supplied by one supplier – Magneti Marelli – to us from Italy. Magneti Marelli already has a setup in India where it is producing some other components. The company has already drawn up a plan to come to India with its AMT production line within the next one year,” S Maitra, COO, supply chain, Maruti, had said in an earlier interview.

With demand for the automatic version constituting almost 35-40 percent of Celerio demand, and with the Alto K10 launch just around the corner, the need to ramp up capacity was imperative.