CHENNAI: With Maruti Suzuki India Limited lining up a shipment over 4,000 units this month, it is set to breach the half-a-million mark in cumulative exports.
The company has cumulatively exported over 497,000 units till last month.
Europe has been a popular destination for Maruti vehicles. Europe accounts for 56 per cent of the company's cumulative exports. The Netherlands (around 67,700 units) Italy (over 41,000 units) and the U.K. (over 34,000) have been the biggest European buyers. Germany and Hungary, too, are among the countries that have imported over 20,000 Maruti Suzuki cars. Amongst the non-European markets, Algeria is the biggest buyer with over 42,000 units, followed by Chile, Sri Lanka and Nepal.
Just as in the Indian market, the Maruti 800, with 178,000 units, has been the most popular Maruti car overseas. Alto follows closely with 152,000 units. Zen was well received, selling over 130,000 units cumulatively.
Maruti Suzuki began exports in 1986 with shipments to neighbouring countries. The first major export was the shipment of 500 Maruti 800 cars to Hungary in 1987-88.
Sources said Maruti Suzuki was hoping to export 50,000 units in 2007-08, growing 27 per cent over last year.
The focus lately had been on developing Afro-Asian and Latin American markets, they pointed out.
Maruti Suzuki's role in global Suzuki had been on the rise, they said. The company had, in fact, set up a state-of-the-art assembly plant at Manesar with an initial capacity of 100,000 units. The Manesar plant production capacity would be increased to 300,000 units in the next two years. ``Maruti Suzuki will manufacture Suzuki's fifth world strategic Model, A-Star, for export. The production model will be based on the Concept A-Star, unveiled at the recent Auto Expo in Delhi,'' these sources said.
