Maruti Suzuki has just recorded its best ever sales figures for a business year selling over 16.5 lac cars in India over the last 12 months (April 2017 to March 2018). This means, Maruti sold 4,530 cars every day, or 1 car every 20 seconds. This sales performance has given Maruti over 50% of market share in Indian car market.
Related: Toyota and Suzuki to Cross-Badge Vehicles in India
Sales were led by the entry-level hatchback the Alto, and affordable yet best-selling compact sedan the Dzire. Other cars such as the WagonR, Baleno, Vitara, Ertiga, Ciaz and the Swift have also doing exceptionally well for Maruti. Currently Maruti does not have a single unsuccessful car on sale which is something few car makers can boast of.
In October 2017, Maruti overtook its parent company (Suzuki Japan) by earning more revenue than the latter. Maruti’s net revenues for last year stood at INR 66,909 crore while Suzuki finished last year with only 60,047 crore as revenues. Maruti’s sales is also much higher than that of Suzuki Japan. Maruti sold 15.65 lac vehicles last year while Suzuki sold only 6.39 lac cars.
Related: Ciaz Outsells City in India, Unable to Sell in Pakistan
Maruti’s growth is also higher than that of Suzuki Japan. Maruti’s sales have jumped from 14.29 lac cars to 15.65 lac while Suzuki Japan has grown from 6.3 lac to 6.39 lac. RC Bhargava, the Chairman of Maruti is not surprised at the excellent performance of his company. According to him:
This is not something that will come as a surprise to us. The home market of Suzuki (Japan) is stagnant. Our numbers will continue to grow faster. Our car sales have been higher than Suzuki Japan but their per unit price is higher than us. Their home market sales have not grown during the past 2-3 years.
Maruti is now Suzuki’s most important unit in the world. The royalties that Maruti pays to Suzuki contributes to a whopping 52% of the Japanese company’s profits. Last year, Maruti paid 3,848 crore rupees to Suzuki as royalty, and this figure is increasing every year as the company’s sales are growing.
Maruti has now even started exporting cars to Japan, which is Suzuki’s home market. This also indicates the high quality levels of Maruti cars as Japan is a very demanding market in terms of quality. The Baleno was the first Indian-made car that was exported to Japan. Maruti is expected to export more car models to Japan as building cars in India is much cheaper than doing so in Japan.
A computer animation professional with over 23 years of industry experience having served in leading organizations, TV channels & production facilities in Pakistan. An avid car enthusiast and petrolhead with an affection to deliver quality content to help shape opinions. Formerly written for PakWheels as well as major publications including Dawn. Founder of CarSpiritPK.com
