Maruti Suzuki India which has reported a 33.36 percent jump in sales in July 2009 at 78,074 units has another reason to celebrate — the growing sales of the Nissan Pixo. The five-door hatchback, which has been contract- manufactured by Suzuki Motor Corporation’s Indian arm for Nissan’s left-hand drive markets in Europe, is essentially a rebadged and restyled version of Maruti A-star. Like the A-star, the Pixo is made at Maruti’s state-of-the-art facility at Manesar.
While Nissan's initial order was for manufacture and export of 30,000 Pixos in 2009-2010, the carmaker has now nearly doubled the import quantity to over 54,000 A-stars. Maruti began shipping Pixos to Europe in January this year from its dedicated car export port at Mundra in Gujarat. The car, fitted with a 1.0-litre petrol engine and six-speed gearbox, is also marketed in the Netherlands and Denmark.
Maruti Suzuki expects to cross the 100,000 units export mark by the end of this financial year (2009-10). The company's overall exports have risen by 87.25 percent to 10,546 units compared to 5,632 units in the year-ago period.