Suzuki automobile production in India crosses 20 million milestone

Japan's Suzuki Motor Corporation (SMC) on Monday said it has achieved accumulated automobile production of 20 million units in India.

With this, India becomes the second country after Japan where Suzuki has reached this milestone, the company said in a statement.

SMC, which began its journey in India through a joint venture with the Central government - Maruti Udyog, said the country is the fastest to reach 20 million units in 34 years and five months since starting production in December 1983, breaking the record of 45 years and 9 months in Japan.

Currently, SMC produces automobiles in the country through Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) in which it holds 56.21 per cent stake and fully-owned arm, Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG) that supplies exclusively to MSIL. While MSIL produces vehicles at Gurgaon and Manesar plants, SMG rolls out vehicles from its Gujarat facility.

"Of the 20 million units, Alto was the most produced model with approximately 3.17 million units," SMC said, adding the company crossed this milestone in India with the newly launched Swift produced at the Gujarat plant.

The Japanese small car major began its automobile production in India in December 1983 with its first model, the Maruti 800 by erstwhile Maruti Udyog.  At present, 16 models, including the Dzire, Baleno, Alto, Swift, WagonR, and Vitara Brezza, are produced at the three plants. In 2017-18, around 1.78 million units were produced in India, of which 1.65 million units were sold in the domestic market and 1,30,000 units were exported to over 100 countries and regions including Europe, Japan, Asia, Africa, and Latin America, SMC added.

The company had crossed the first 1 million units milestone in March 1994 and went on to reach 10 million units in March 2011. It crossed the 15 million units cumulative production milestone in India in May 2015.

The top five produced models are Alto (3.17 million), Maruti 800 (2.91 million), Wagon R (2.13 million), Onmi (1.94 million) and Swift (1.94 million), the company said.