Manufacture of new Suzuki Vitara in Hungary gets underway

Exclusive manufacture of the new Suzuki Vitara, a small SUV with off-road capabilities and a flashy design, got underway on Thursday at Suzuki's facility in Esztergom, a city in northern Hungary.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and 85-year-old Suzuki chairman, Osamu Suzuki, attended the official production kickoff, local wire service MTI reported.

Orban's address focused on the new jobs the production would bring, pointing out that his goal was to reach full employment nationwide by 2018.

Japan has invested over 3.5 billion euros (about 3.9 billion dollars) in the Central European country, making it the largest Asian greenfield investor in Hungary, Orban said, adding that there were currently 149 Japanese companies in Hungary providing work for over 25,000 people. This week alone, Orban said, three Japanese firms announced new investments that will create hundreds of new jobs.

Suzuki said that in his company's 24 years of production in Esztergom, over 2.5 million cars had been produced, making this factory Suzuki's third largest on a global scale. Esztergom Suzuki employs 3,100 people, 25 percent of the supplier companies are Hungarian, and the 74 domestic suppliers offer jobs to close to 30,000 people, he said.

The factory's briefing on the new model stated that it would produce 70,000 Vitaras in its first year. The Vitara will be exported to 70 countries at the start, but within three years the company expects to add another thirty countries to its export list. Overall, Hungary's Suzuki factory expects to manufacture 165,000 Suzuki cars of various models including the Swift, Splash, and SX4 along with the Vitara in 2015.

Suzuki describes the new Vitara as a leisure family car. It has a 120 horsepower 1.6 engine, in both gasoline and diesel versions. Endit