Maruti Suzuki Reaches Record One Crore Car Sales

Published: Thursday, February 9, 2012, 15:18 [IST]

Maruti Suzuki is celebrating a rare distinction. India's leading carmaker has sold a total of one crore cars in India after it was founded 29 years ago in 1983. Maruti Suzuki in its statement has said the company's ten millionth car was a red Swift Vxi that was dispatched to Coimbatore.

Maruti Suzuki's race to reach one crore sales has been phenomenal considering it sold its 5 millionth car only in February 2006. While the first five million sales took 23 years, the next took just six. This clearly indicates the swift acceleration of Maruti Suzuki's cars in recent years and also the total trend in the Indian car market.

Maruti Suzuki began its Indian journey by selling the Maruti 800, a car that is still under production. It has dominated the market from the first year itself and has lost some grip on the market in the past two years.

Commenting on crossing the milestone, the Managing Director and CEO, Mr Shinzo Nakanishi, said: “Maruti Suzuki"s success story is closely linked with the success story of India in the last two decades. Even as India has grown and transformed, Maruti Suzuki has evolved to meet changing demands."

The company, which started off as a joint venture between the Government of India and Japan"s Suzuki Motor Corp, had transformed personal transportation in India with its M800 model, which till date continues to find many buyers across the country.

While Maruti 800 and Omni powered the sales for almost two decades, the Alto has been India"s best-selling car for the last over seven years, the company said.

In recent years, the success of WagonR and Swift, among others, has accelerated the company"s progress towards the one crore mark, it added.

“We will continue to drive the growth and evolution of India"s car market," Mr Nakanishi said.