With 283,067 units exported, the company has continued to be India’s top exporter of passenger cars for the third year in a row. Further, Maruti Suzuki recently achieved the significant accomplishment of manufacturing more than 3 crore automobiles in India.
The supporting factors to this outlook include better products, improved portfolio in foreign nations and transfer of talent, Rahul Bharti told ET Online.
“Fundamentally, the products have to be good and competitive in terms of technology, quality, and cost. And this is what gives us a lot of confidence in the global as well as domestic markets,” he said, adding that increased sales efforts such as more launches in more markets is also a reason for growth in exports.
In an investors’ call, Executive Director (Sales and Marketing), Partho Banerjee also revealed that the automaker has clocked total exports of about 18,000 crore and a net export of 90,700 crore with imports of around 87,000 crore.
The automaker in its Q4 concall had noted that exports are expected to grow in future years with demand from Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa on account of favourable Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) between the countries. “Today, we are in 100 markets but not all our models are available in these markets. So, if we keep increasing our portfolio in these individual markets then the exports increase,” Bharti stated.However, the geo-political tensions including the current crisis in the Red Sea may pose logistical problems, the management had said in the concall, adding that it may increase lead time for dispatches in Q1FY25.
According to Maruti’s top executive, driving sales via exports would also need an enhanced network and more workforce.
“Next is deeper penetration, which means increasing the network. And furthermore, some transfer of best practices from India, such as sales and service help increase sales in the export markets, Bharti explained.
A report by HDFC Securities’ “HSIE Results Daily” said that while the automobile industry reported a decline in exports, MSIL increased its export volume in FY24 by 10% aided by new SUV launches. The exports saw a massive 50 per cent jump, it added.
Having started exports in 1987, about 42 per cent of India’s exports today are from Maruti Suzuki.
“…The best part is that our first EV will be exported to Europe and Japan. Till now, EVs were a topic of imports. We will be able to shift the topic to exports when it comes to EVs and to advanced markets like Europe and Japan this year itself, this calendar year, Bharti had told ET Now in February.
In April, Maruti recorded a 4.7 per cent increase in total sales at 1,68,089 units compared to 1,60,529 units in the same month last year. Meanwhile, total domestic passenger vehicle sales stood at 1,37,952 units as against 1,37,320 units in April 2023.
However, a Nomura has suggested that Maruti’s growth is likely to be slower in FY25 owing to the weak model cycle as compared to the previous year.
The shares of Maruti Suzuki were trading at Rs 12,657, down 1.25 per cent at 10.05 am on Thursday.