Maruti's own car may finally roll out in 2017 after a 5-year delay.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited aims to design and develop its own car, without much support from its Japanese parent Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC), by 2017, an official said.

India’s largest carmaker, which draws much of its technical know-how from SMC, is keen on its 2,000-strong research and development (R&D) team making a car.

Presently, SMC looks after the design, engineering, valuation, validation and testing for Maruti's vehicles. It holds 56 per cent equity in the Japanese-dominated board of Maruti. But the Indian firm says with every launch, it is getting more confident to develop products on its own.

The recent launch of the automatic-transmission Alto and its variants showed that. Maruti's engineers had done a significant part of the developmental work.

BS