Maruti Suzuki is India’s largest automaker with over 50 per cent market share. Since its inception in 1983, the automaker has broken a fair few production records and now here is another feather in it’s cap. Maruti Suzuki has crossed the 20 million or 2 Crore cars production milestone in India. The figure was reached in just 34 years and 5 months since inception beating out Japan’s earlier benchmark of 45 years and 9 months. The 20 millionth car produced in India was made at the new Suzuki Sanand factory in Gujarat and is a new Maruti Suzuki Swift in the iconic shade of bright red.
From the 20 million cars produced, the Alto of course is the largest chunk with 3.17 million units. The Maruti 800 follows with 2.91 units in its production run from 1983 to 2007 followed by the Maruti Suzuki Wagon R at 2.13 million units. The popular Maruti Van, which was later rebadged Omni and continues to sell even today is forth on the list with 1.94 million units tied with the Maruti Suzuki Swift, also at 1.94 million units. Other notable cars include the likes of the comparatively newer Dzire, Balenoand Vitara Brezza, all of which have been showcasing great sales numbers every month.
Going back, Maruti Suzuki reached its first million cars milestone in May 1994, a little over 10 years since the company first began production in December 1993. The 5 million units milestone was reached in April 2005 followed by the 10 million units milestone in March 2011. The 15 million unit milestone was reached in May 2015 following which the growth has been exponential taking less than 3 years to breach the 20 million mark. Maruti Suzuki has already announced that it plans to sell over 2 million cars a year in the near future. Expect the 25 million units milestone to come up quicker than expected.
Prasanta Patnaik