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Informist, Friday, May 1, 2026

MUMBAI – Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. has been working to calibrate its production capacity in order to meet demand for different segments and could unlock production capacity for small cars "partially" in April as the new production line comes on stream, the company's management told reporters in a virtual media briefing Friday. 

"Unfortunately, over the last four to five years, based on the market demand, we had modified our lines to meet the requirements of the market. Suddenly, when the demand came (after GST cut), it took us time to again get the production back on track," Partho Banerjee, a senior executive officer of the company's marketing and sales division, said.

Maruti Suzuki recorded its highest-ever sales in April as it sold 239,646 cars, up  33% on year. It is worth noting that the company's sales had grown only 7% in April last year to 179,791 units.

Sales of its mini cars surged to 16,066 units in April, up from 6,332 in April last year. Maruti Suzuki is still facing production constraints for the manufacturing of models such as Fronx and Baleno, which are both sold through its Nexa outlets, its premium dealership network. The company recently halted production of another Nexa model, Ignis, which Banerjee said was part of Maruti Suzuki's 'model-refresh' strategy. "But yes, the brand stays there, and I always say the brand is more important than the product, so again, maybe we will be coming in a different avatar (form)," Banerjee said.

DEMAND STRENGTH

Banerjee stressed that Maruti Suzuki has been seeing strong demand across categories and powertrain options since the cut in GST became effective. In April, the company sold 76,348 cars, fuelled by compressed natural gas, which is a record high. "Almost every 4th car out of the 10 cars which we are selling happens to be a CNG product," Banerjee said.

Maruti Suzuki currently has a network stock of around 16-17 days. Its pending bookings stand at 165,000 units. Maruti Suzuki's sedan Dzire remained India's top-selling model in April. "Dzire was the number one model, sold 23,580 units. No one is going to touch it," the company said.

Going forward, Banerjee expects the passenger vehicle industry to continue its growth momentum, driven by policy decisions such as the income tax break, cumulative repo rate cuts, and the GST cut. "The tailwinds are there still and I think as long as the tailwinds are there I think there is no rhyme and reason why the auto industry should not grow," Banerjee said. "But yes, if there is an increase in the fuel prices, obviously there will be an impact on the sales of the small cars," he added.

EXPORT STRATEGY

The company exported 40,054 units in April compared with 27,911 cars last year. "This is even higher than the monthly average of the previous year...in the last financial year, we had given out a guidance of 4 lakh (400,000) units, but we were able to exceed it to 4.47 lakh (447,000) units," Rahul Bharti, the senior executive director of corporate affairs at Maruti Suzuki, said.

Diversification has been a key strategy adopted by the company in recent years, which has helped it offset some of the pressures created by the war in West Asia. "We export to a hundred countries, we de-risk ourselves and we ensure that the increase in other markets help counter any impact in one particular geography," Bharti said.

"We have grown steeply in the past five years at 4.4x. This year, we would like to do at least the same as last year. We would protect last year's volumes despite the war, and we hope we are able to do that," Bharti said, outlining the export plans for 2026-27 (Apr-Mar).

Maruti Suzuki has tempered the production of the e-Vitara in India as it recalibrates its output strategy, given the ongoing capacity constraints. "Till Jul-Aug, we don't have the production capacities. We have done sales of 2,006 units (of e Vitara) for April," Banerjee said. The company has export commitments for the e Vitara, which it has now shipped across 44 countries. It exported 4,900 e Vitara units in April.

For the March quarter, Maruti Suzuki has reported net profit of INR 35.91 billion, down almost 7% on year and below analysts' expectation of INR 40.65 billion. Its revenue grew 28% on year to INR 524.49 billion, above the consensus view of INR 514.52 billion. Thursday, its shares had closed 0.4% higher at INR 13,314 on the National Stock Exchange.   End

Reported by Anand JC and Arundathi A R

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

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