Maruti Suzuki India, the largest car manufacturer in the country has announced a new achievement today. They have become the first car maker in the country to have cumulative sales of over 20 million or 2 crores. Yes. The number of Maruti cars on Indian roads has crossed the 2 crore mark.
To reach this production mark, Maruti Suzuki India took 34 years and 6 months. The first Maruti car was rolled out back in December 1983. The owner (Mr Harpal Singh) of the car was selected via a lucky draw, and was handed over the car by India’s then Prime Minister – Indira Gandhi.
Today, about 34 and a half years later, the car no 20 millionth was produced from the company’s plant in Haryana. Speaking about the achievement, Mr Kenichi Ayukawa, MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India, said, “We would like to thank all our valued customers, business partners, Government, investors and all stakeholders. The 20 million production milestone is a testimony of trust in brand Maruti Suzuki. For over three decades, Maruti Suzuki has worked to listen and meet the evolving customer aspirations with contemporary products of global quality. We are committed to serve customers with products and services, which are best in quality, safety and ahead in technology.”
The last five million production has also been the fastest. Maruti took more than 21 years to sell their first 5 million cars, which came in April 2005. The next 5 million sales came in March 2011 (6 years), the next 5 million came in May 2015 (50 months), and the latest 5 million sales came in July 2018 (38 months).
Today, Maruti Suzuki has two plants in India, both in Haryana. Their parent, Suzuki has a plant in Gujarat. Together, these three plants produce 17.5 lakh cars a year. By 2020, Maruti Suzuki will produce 20 lakh cars a year, thereby meeting their target of achieving yearly 2 million production in India.
Their next target is producing 5 million cars in India by 2030. This means they want to sell 50 lakh cars a year, of which they aim to sell 15 lakh electric cars. In order to achieve this huge sales, the company has planned an aggressive road map of launching conventional petrol / diesel cars along with electric cars.
The first Maruti electric car will be launched in India in 2020. It will be in the form of WagonR electric. Apart from this, they will also launch Swift, Alto, DZire, Baleno electric. Basically, they will make their entire line-up available with electric option. Helping them do this will be their global partner Toyota, who is also a leader in electric car technology.
UPDATE – Last month, Suzuki revealed that they have crossed 20 million car production in India. Now, Maruti Suzuki, their subsidiary in India, has announced the same. This has caused confusion among readers. To clear the air, there is a difference because – Suzuki reached the 20 million mark before Maruti Suzuki as they included production from the new Gujarat plant, whereas Maruti Suzuki reached later because under them are the only two plants in Haryana, whereas under Suzuki are all three plants.
