A journalist's experience of visiting our R&D facility- Dhruv Behl

The R&D facility of Maruti Suzuki of course, is amazing – but the most striking thing I felt was how knowledgeable and passionate the engineers were!

They sounded more like orthopaedic surgeons than automotive engineers!

And I have to say, at least in my case, I had no idea at the level of work that was being done to ensure pedestrian safety.

The assumption was that an automaker would do the basics to ensure that the regulations were met, but what I saw in our short time at the R&D Centre was the genuine interest in reducing disabilities and fatalities in the event of a crash – for both occupants and pedestrians. This was truly heart-warming, and I think we should all be very proud of the kind of work that Maruti Suzuki is doing at Rohtak.

Of course, you can see that there’s a lot of pride in the facility itself – and also in the fact that the Vitara Brezza was developed in-house. The facilities, people themselves, are world class. C V Raman San’s briefing on the amount of time it’s taken to develop the engineering expertise was also eye opening! Equally impressive was the manner in which the banking of the high-speed track was built. And it certainly appears that the benefits of this facility are already being noticed in your new cars – which really do have world-class ride-and-handling.

Finally, I’d like to say that not only was the precision and quality control impressive but also the unassuming manner in which the entire team went about performing their (extraordinary) tasks. It demonstrated a sincerity and integrity that’s bound to translate into class-leading future products and establish market leadership for many years to come.

As they say, product in king. And it’s R&D and Design that leads to world-class products. This is a time when Indian consumers are not willing to compromise at all, and it’s good to see that Maruti Suzuki is leading the way in giving people what they want (and need)!!

- Dhruv Behl