Diesel price de-regulation not to affect Isuzu's India plans

Isuzu India assembling its pick-up vehicles and SUVs at Hindustan Motors manufacturing facility near Chennai

Japanese automotive major Isuzu Motors on Monday said the government's diesel de-regulation would not affect its investment plans for India, as the diesel engine market for premium SUVs and pick-up vehicles in the country would continue to outperform the overall auto industry sales growth.

"The premium diesel engine sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pick-up vehicles (in CV segment) would continue to grow in the Indian scenario," said Shigeru Wakabayashi, deputy managing director, Isuzu India.

He supported it by saying, "customers prefer diesel engine as it offers low life cycle maintenance costs, which is very good for them." Understanding the Indian market demand for commercial vehicles and premium SUVs, Isuzu has committed to set up a Rs 3,000 crore facility for manufacturing these at Sri City SEZ in Andhra Pradesh.

Isuzu Motors India Private Limited, a joint venture (JV) between Isuzu Motors (62%) and Mitsubishi Corporation (38%), today announced the ground breaking ceremony for its upcoming facility. According to it, Phase-I of the plant would be completed by April 2016, leading to a capacity of 50,000 units per annum.

This would be hiked to 120,000 units by 2020, it said. The plant's capacity would also be exported to global markets. Isuzu plans to achieve 100% localisation for product components within three years of operations. Besides, it would generate direct job opportunities to 2,000-3,000 individuals.

Currently, Isuzu India is assembling its pick-up vehicles and SUVs at the Hindustan Motors Limited manufacturing facility near Chennai, under a licence agreement with it.

Early this month, it unveiled its first fully-assembled premium SUV MU-7 in India at Hyderabad, priced at Rs 22.3 lakh.