Maruti Suzuki targets export of 270,000 units by end of March

India's largest car manufacturer, Maruti Suzuki, is eyeing exports of over 270,000 units by the end of March this year. Last year, the company exported 259,000 units.

Shashank Srivastava, Senior Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales spoke with CNBC-TV18 after the company reported strong sales for February.

The company's exports for February jumped 68% year-on-year (YoY) to 28,927 units from 17,207 units.

"We have already touched 257,000 in exports by the end of February and it was around 226,000 till February of last year. So export is growing at 12.2% currently on a cumulative basis from April to February," he said.

Total sales for February were at 197,000 units, up 15% YoY from 172,000. Domestic sales rose around 9% to 169,000 units, and within that passenger vehicles sales were around 160,000 units.

Maruti crossed exports of a little over 270,000 units in the calendar year January to December 2023, Srivastava noted.

The company is also venturing into the electric vehicle (EV) market and recently announced plans to begin EV exports to countries like Europe and Japan this year. It also aims to export lithium-ion battery cells and modules worth approximately ₹750 crore in the current fiscal year.

Srivastava also highlighted Maruti Suzuki's market share gains. In February, the company's market share reached nearly 43% from 41.4% the previous year. From April to February, the market share has improved by about half a percent, he said. The gains are mainly driven by the rising popularity of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) where market share has increased to 22% from 11% last year.

Last week, Maruti chairman, RC Bhargava, had talked about plans to ramp up production to four million cars annually by 2030 from 2.25 million units produced across its plants in Haryana and Gujarat as of now.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of  ₹3,64,642.53 crore. Its shares have gained 34% over the last year.