Maruti Suzuki: 15 lakh exports up!

Maruti Suzuki has announced that it has crossed the milestone of 15 lakh exports from India. The company started exporting cars to Europe in 1987-88 and currently ships out cars to over 100 countries, in Europe, Latin America, and Africa.

Initially, the company started exporting a very small number of cars to Hungary. But the exports saw a major rise with the introduction of the Maruti Zen, which helped the automaker to explore more markets. The Maruti 800, the Alto, and later the A-Star also played a major role in expanding Maruti Suzuki's footprint on the global map. Earlier this year, the company even started exporting the India-made Baleno hatchback to Japan, which is Suzuki's home country. The Baleno thus became the first car to be exported from India to Japan.

During the last fiscal year, i.e., 2015-16, the top five most exported Maruti cars from India included the Alto, Swift, Celerio, Baleno, and Ciaz. Sri Lanka, Chile, Philippines, Peru and Bolivia were the main destinations of these exported models. Maruti also started shipping out its first light commercial vehicle (LCV) to South Africa and Tanzania, while more SAARC countries are expected to be added to the list in the near future.