Suzuki Motor Corporation is very pleased to announce the production of 20 million units in India and the milestone model was a Swift produced at the Gujarat plant. Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG) is Suzuki’s third and most recent facility which began operations earlier this year to cope with ever increasing demand due to the growing economy in India.
India becomes the second country after Japan to reach 20 million units and achieved this in 34 years and five months since production commenced in December 1983. This figure breaks the 20 million production record in Japan by 11 years and four months.
Of the 20 million cars produced, Alto was the most popular representing 3,170,000 units followed by the Maruti 800 of which 2,910,000 left the production lines. The Maruti 800 was Suzuki’s first car to be produced in India in December 1983 by Maruti Udyog, the former company of the present Maruti Suzuki. To put the sheer size of the Suzuki market in India into perspective, domestic sales were 163,200 units just in May 2018 alone, an increase of 24.9 per cent year on year.
16 different models are produced in India including Swift, Dzire, Wagon R, Celerio, Vitara Brezza as well as Baleno which is exported to the UK.
The Gujarat plant joined the established Gurgaon and Manesar plants which together produced 1,643,467 units for its domestic market in FY 2017 (April 2017–March 2018). The Gujarat plant has an annual production capacity of 250,000 units with plant No 2 already being constructed to commence operations early next year and a third plant is also being planned. In the longer term, the total annual production of all three in the Gujarat region will be 750,000 units.
Suzuki Motor Corporation is the eighth largest car brand in the world with sales in FY 2017 of 3,160,000 units.