In its latest financial statement released earlier in August, Maruti Suzuki India revealed that the South African market is its biggest export destination.
During the 2022/2023 financial year, which ran from 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023, the Indian automaker shipped 89,483 cars to local roads, accounting for around 35% of the total of 259,000 units it exported to over 100 countries around the globe.
The second-most popular destination for Indian-made Suzukis was Chile, which imported a far lower 14,977 units, followed by the Ivory Coast (13,982), Saudi Arabia (13,171), and Ethiopia (12,303), illustrating the importance of the South African market for the popular manufacturer.
To little surprise, Maruti Suzuki’s top five export models were also top sellers in the domestic market.
These comprise the DZire, Swift, Baleno, S-Presso, and Celerio – in that order – however, the company did not reveal how many of each it sent overseas.
Maruti Suzuki top 5 export markets, 2022/2023 financial year
Suzuki smashes it out of the park in South Africa.
Suzuki opened its doors in South Africa all the way back in 2008, and since then, it has gone from strength to strength to now being one of the country’s top three brands.
This July, Suzuki’s domestic arm reached the incredible milestone of welcoming its 200,000th customer after selling an impressive 4,361 vehicles, with a total of 201,417 local motorists now being able to say they have bought a Suzuki in the past.
This equates to an average of approximately 13,428 vehicles sold every 12 months for the past 15 years.
Maruti Suzuki top 5 export models, 2022/2023 financial year
The ride upwards wasn’t smooth sailing, though, as the brand took over nine years just to sell its first 50,000 cars, which is more than half the time it has spent in South Africa.
After this, its sales started going up exponentially, with the next 50,000 units sold in four years, the 50,000 after those in 17 months, and the last 50,000 needed to reach the 200,000-unit mark in only 12 months “and a few days,” said the manufacturer.
It attributes the successes to the general affordability of its vehicles, as the manufacturer has a tight grip on the budget segment with six models starting under R250,000.
Keyword: How many Suzukis were shipped from India to South Africa last year