Maruti bets on A-star for future sales growth

Maruti Suzuki expects its recently launched A-star small car to drive future sales in both the domestic and export markets. The carmaker is targeting sales of 50,000 units of the A-star in the Indian market in 2009. The new model will also contribute to at least 50 percent of the company's export target of 200,000 units by 2010-11. Moreover, the company is pushing up capacity at its Manesar facility, where the A-star is made, to 300,000 units per annum by January 2009.

Maruti has seen its sales being hit by the recent slowdown in the market. In fact the sales of its entry-level 800 model fell by about 18 percent in the April to October 2008 period. Even its more popular models like the Alto, Zen and WagonR saw a mere 2.5 percent growth in this period. Bigger growth has been coming from cars such as SX4, Dzire and Swift, which grew 37 percent in the same period. The A-Star is the fifth global model from Maruti Suzuki to be launched in less than 40 months and will also be exported to Europe badged as a Nissan.