Maruti Suzuki hits 3 million cumulative export milestone

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd achieved the 3 million cumulative exports milestone after a shipment of 1,053 units sailed from Gujarat’s Pipavav port comprising models like Celerio, Fronx, Jimny, Baleno, Ciaz, Dzire and S-Presso.

India’s largest passenger vehicle manufacturer commenced export of vehicles from India in 1986. The first large consignment of 500 cars was shipped to Hungary in September 1987. The company clocked the 1 millionth milestone in vehicle exports in the financial year 2012-13, followed by the next million in a little less than 9 years in FY21. The progression from 2 million to 3 million cumulative exports was achieved in just 3 years and 9 months, making it the fastest million for Maruti Suzuki.

Maruti Suzuki exported 181,444 units in the April-October period of the ongoing fiscal, marking a growth of 17.4% over the same period the previous year. It clocked the highest-ever monthly export volume of 33,168 units in October 2024.

The carmaker exports 17 models to nearly 100 countries. Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East are important export markets for the company. Fronx, Jimny, Baleno, Dzire and S-Presso are the top export models from Maruti Suzuki.

“Today, 40% of passenger vehicles exported from India are from Maruti Suzuki, making us the number 1 vehicle exporter in the country,” says Hisashi Takeuchi, MD and CEO, Maruti Suzuki India.

The 3 million cumulative exports milestone reflects India’s automobile manufacturing excellence and is a shining example of ‘Brand India’ on the global stage, Takeuchi says, thanking the government for “instituting encouraging policies and enabling trade agreements with some markets augmenting export growth.”

Aligned with the Government of India’s flagship ‘Make in India’ initiative, Maruti Suzuki is committed to deep localisation and multiplying exports, he says.

“Our exports from India have grown by 3 times from 4 years ago. Inspired by this global demand, Maruti Suzuki is determined to diversify and ramp-up vehicle exports to 7.5 lakh units by 2030-31,” says Takeuchi.

The rise in exports is also helping the carmaker in lowering retail prices in India. “With exports, we can expand the total production volumes of certain models which will help us to reduce the cost that goes into developing new models. That helps us to reduce retail prices in the domestic market,” Takeuchi told reporters in an interaction earlier this month.

Maruti Suzuki India’s ambition for growth cannot be met by domestic demand alone, according to Rahul Bharti, executive director of corporate affairs at Maruti Suzuki. "India has to take a larger share of global trade. We are at a modest level," Bharti told Fortune India in an interview recently.  14% of Maruti Suzuki’s sales came from exports in the financial year 2023-24. The company is targeting 20% sales from exports by FY31. “We were at 95,000 units just before Covid-19. And we grew by 3X till last year to 2.80 lakh units. We will grow by another 3X on top of it by 2030 to 8 lakh units. That’s a nine-fold jump in 10 years in exports,” said Bharti.

The strategy in exports is to diversify, as per Bharti. “If you have a large basket then individual disruptions don’t affect you. The container crisis didn’t affect us. The Red Sea crisis didn’t affect us. The Bangladesh crisis didn’t affect us,” said Bharti. “Some countries may face currency fluctuations or economic turmoil. It keeps happening almost all the time. Today, Sri Lanka has zero exports. At some point, it was 12,000 cars a year,” he added.