Magyar Suzuki to launch production of new Vitara in January
Magyar Suzuki´s Esztergom-based plant will return to two-shift operation in December, where the mass production of the new Vitara, the fourth Suzuki model manufactured at the plant, will begin in January.
Cutting back the number of shifts to one following the summer break was necessitated by the preparation of the plant for the production of the Vitara, Suzuki's latest global model to be introduced at the plant after phasing out old cars such as the SX4 and the Splash.
The changeover took over four months, and while two-shift operation will be reintroduced in December, there will be additional outages in spring and summer next year.
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| The new Vitara debuted at the Paris Motor Show |
In spite of a poor performance shown by the European car market, the company has not changed its mind to produce 155,000 cars this year at the Esztergom plant.
"Although this number seems low, and indeed it is a negative record, we have to take into consideration that we are preparing for the production of a new global model," said Ryoichi Oura, CEO of Magyar Suzuki Corp.
Oura, a chemical engineer, has been employed by Suzuki since 1984 and has worked at the Esztergom plant since 2011, where he replaced Hisashi Takeuchi as company CEO in spring 2014. Oura has high hopes for the success of the new Vitara.
Although the model was developed in Japan, Hungarian engineers have also worked on developing production technology for the car.
The CEO pointed out that currently the all-European supplier share exceeds 80 percent. Suzuki has 200 suppliers in Europe and 85 suppliers from Hungary, which also applies to the new Vitara, reflecting in the share of Hungarian added value.
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| Ryoichi Oura, the new CEO of Magyar Suzuki Corporation |
Suzuki strives to increase the number of domestic suppliers via various supplier programmes. As an example the CEO mentioned that the company takes Hungarian executives to Japanese suppliers to show how it is possible to provide the quality required by Suzuki in an effective way.
Róbert Krisztián, COO for sales and marketing, said at a press conference that Magyar Suzuki exports to 60 countries, while its most important market is still Europe, where the company sells over 13,000 new Hungarian-built Suzukis every year.
He said that the new Vitara will hit local showrooms in spring and the company will disclose more information about its price and production volume at a later time. Next year, four Suzuki models will be manufactured at the Esztergom-based plant: The new Vitara, the S-Cross, Swift and Swift Sport models.
