Japanese automobile behemoth Suzuki Motor Corporation on Monday announced that it has achieved accumulated automobile production of 20 million units in India.
"India becomes the second country after Japan in which Suzuki has reached this milestone, and the fastest country to reach 20 million units in just 34 years and five months since starting production in December 1983, breaking the record of 45 years and nine months in Japan," the company said in a statement.
Of the 20 million units, the Alto was the most produced model with approximately 3.17 million units. A Swift produced at the company's facility at Hansalpur, Gujarat, was the 20 millionth model.
Suzuki’s automobile production in India started in December 1983 with its first model, the Maruti 800 by Maruti Udyog, the former company of the present Maruti Suzuki. Since then, production units and models were increased to meet the expanding needs owing to the growing economy in India.
The company reached the one million units output milestone in March 1994, five million units by April 2005, 10 million units by March 2011, 15 million units by May 2015, and 20 million units by June of this year, with the fastest rise of five million units in production coming in the last three years itself.
Today, production is carried out at Maruti Suzuki's plants at Gurugram and Manesar, as well as the Gujarat plant of Suzuki Motor Gujarat, Suzuki’s 100% subsidiary to produce automobiles in India.
At these three production sites, 16 models are produced including the Dzire, Baleno, Alto, Swift, Wagon R, and Vitara Brezza.
Meanwhile, the other models that enabled Suzuki to achieve this milestone are M800 (2.91 million units), Wagon R (2.13 million units), Omni (1.94 million units), and Swift (1.94 million units).
In FY2017, approximately 1.78 million units were produced in India, of which 1.65 million units were sold in the Indian domestic market, and 130,000 units were exported to over 100 countries and regions including Europe, Japan, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.