Maruti Suzuki’s European thrust

Europe beckons, much more than ever for Maruti Suzuki India, it seems. The car maker is lining up major expansion plans for the European region.

Maruti Suzuki, which has sales in Europe at locations like the UK, France, Hungary, Italy and Netherland, is now looking at exporting 1 lakh units of A-Star to Europe. Moreover, The Netherlands leads in Maruti imports with more than 67700 units from Maruti Suzuki reaching Dutch shores.

The car manufacturer currently boasts of a dedicated car terminal at the Mundra Port. Making full use of this facility, Maruti Suzuki India is said to be out setting exports from Mundra Port by January 2009. The automotive giant is looking at exporting as many as 2 lakh cars by 2011.

It has been pointed out by the company that the Maruti Suzuki A-Star will be exported overseas through its dedicated terminal at Mundra Port. Further, Mundra Port will be mainly utilized for exporting to Europe alone, it added.

Talking of the Mundra port terminal, it is spread across a sprawling 35 acres and has the capacity to occupy 30000 cars. It is expected that by mid-December, the terminal will be geared up to export only for European cars. The Maruti Suzuki A-Star batch is scheduled for January 2009. It is common knowledge that Alto has already made a mark in Europe. Maruti will now looking at adding to its acceptability in Europe with its A-Star model. In the domestic market, the all new A Star is being pushed aggressively by the company and is expected to see sales of about 50,000 units during the year.

Meanwhile, it is expected that export to non-European markets will also go up from the current 53000 units to more than 1 lakh units by 2011. Maruti Suzuki India has exported around 5.43 lakh units of various models to other countries. Of this, as many as 2,81000 units were exported to Europe alone .

The company is also said to be sprucing up its R&D division foreseeing more exports. Besides the car maker is also said to be in the process of developing a multiple fuel option for all cars.