Its All in the Family: Suzuki to Move Production of Wagon R to Opel Poland plant

TOKYO, Jan 31, 2005; Reuters reported that Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp. will transfer production of its Wagon R+ model, now built in Hungary, to Opel's assembly plant in Poland at the end of February, a spokesman said on Monday.

Suzuki, a maker of small cars owned one-fifth by General Motors Corp., needs to make room at its factory in northern Hungary to build the new Swift, a strategic model also made in Japan and to be produced soon in China and India.

The Opel Polska plant in Poland builds the Agila model, which shares a platform with the Suzuki Wagon R+. Opel is the German brand owned by General Motors.

Suzuki has said it would invest 50 billion forint ($266 million) to boost output capacity in Hungary to 150,000 cars a year from around 100,000 units now. It plans to produce 100,000 units of the Swift alone, mostly for export.

The plant built 34,000 Wagon R+ cars last year.