Maruti Suzuki on track to become India's biggest car exporter

Maruti Suzuki has been working on upgrading its product with the launch of new cars, the new launches are going to cover all the segments ranging from hatchback to SUV.

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Maruti Suzuki, India's largest automobile manufacturer, is on track to become the country's largest car exporter in FY22. After an 11-year hiatus, the accomplishment has been accomplished, with the new Baleno leading the pack. In the calendar year 2021, the carmaker exported 205,450 vehicles.

In a conversation with IANS, Maruti Suzuki India`s Senior Executive Director, Sales and Marketing, Shashank Srivastava, said, "The company already shipped out almost 206,000 units to foreign markets in the calendar year 2021."

"This financial year also we should be doing something like 220,000 units. Maruti is now the largest exporter of cars in India," he said. Besides exports, the other driver for demand, according to Srivastava, will come from the high Capex announced in the Union Budget FY23. "There is no doubt that increased Capex capital will ultimately benefit the industry."

Furthermore, the re-opening of contact intensive sectors such as education is also expected to give demand a push. "A lot of the demand should come back from the reopening of institutions across the country."

"Once normalcy starts returning... it is expected to help us get back to the normal economy." On the pandemic induced rise in automobile sales trend, he said that the shift to personal mobility would continue for some more time.

"When the pandemic began, it was expected that car demand would come down, but it has been the opposite of that. It has done better than the expectation even with the loss of income levels and the disruption that we saw in the last two years."

"Going forward, the expectation is that the shift to personal mobility will continue for some more time. The pandemic may go away, but the fear might still linger on."

In addition, the company plans to launch a slew of new as well upgraded products in the market. It recently opened the bookings for its new generation Baleno.

With inputs from IANS