Maruti Suzuki attains one million cumulative exports mark

Car market leader Maruti Suzuki India Limited exported its one millionth vehicle here today. The glistening red colored A-star left the Mundra coast line along with 2,200 other vehicles for various international destinations including Switzerland, Malta, Sweden in Europe and Algeria, Egypt and Morocco in the non European destinations. The millionth car will be sold in Denmark. On the achievement, Mr. Shinzo Nakanishi, Managing Director & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited said,“A million cars in overseas markets is a significant milestone for us. Two years back, Europe was a strong destination for us.

We have aligned our exports strategy in line with the changed scenario in exports market. The market for us has shifted significantly from Europe to non-European countries. While the A-star, marketed under ‘Suzuki Alto’ and ‘Suzuki Celerio’ badge in international markets was doing well, we also worked on identifying alternate non European markets. This strategy worked in our favour and helped us retain our export numbers after European nations withdrew the scrappage incentives. We are happy that cars manufactured at Maruti Suzuki India have found good customer acceptance in overseas markets.”

With today’s shipment Algeria also attains the landmark of being the only country to import over 100,000 units from Maruti Suzuki. Today’s shipment includes over 1500 units for Algeria. In 2009-10, Maruti Suzuki’s total exports were over 1.47 lakh units. Of which over 75 per cent were to Europe. By 2011-12 the share of non-EU export sales shot up sharply from 23 per cent to 66 per cent In coming times, the Company plans to expand its presence in newer markets including the ASEAN region. Best sellers Today, the million Maruti Suzuki cars ply on the roads of over 125 countries across five continents. Interestingly, it is the A-star which has emerged as the fastest moving brand in exports. Within 38 months of its first shipment in January 2009, it has clocked exports of over 300,000 units. With over 136 variants, A-star is exported to over 100 countries across the world. In cumulative sales, A-star is followed by Alto with over 250,000 units and Maruti 800 with 226, 000 units.