Small is beautiful. This is the gospel that the country's largest car maker Maruti Udyog [Get Quote] is trying to evangelise in its export markets - even to the sheikhs of the Arab world known for their penchant for fuel guzzling humongous SUVs, as it steps up to boost overseas sales. The company, which has set an export target of around 2,20,000 units by 2010, is spreading into new markets like the UAE, where it has just started shipments of its best selling small car Alto, and also into the Philippines and Indonesia markets.
Besides, MUL is also intensely focusing on penetrating deeper into the existing export market, where in many of the cases it is pitched against cheap imported second hand big cars.
"Our strategy has been to promote the small car and how a brand new fuel efficient vehicle is better and more environment-friendly than those second hand imported big cars through our distributors in those markets," Maruti Udyog Ltd managing director Jagdish Khattar told PTI.
Already the strategy seems to be working for Maruti and this fiscal's target of 50,000 units from exports is on track. "In Saudi Arabia we were doing about just 250 units when we started, but we are targeting over 3,000 units," he said.
Last fiscal MUL's export to Saudi Arabia was 2,072 units of Alto. Similarly, in Morocco where it opened account with about 200 units, it is looking at selling over 2,000 units, he added.
Likewise, MUL is expecting to sell about 11,000 units in Algeria this fiscal and it expects shipments to cross 6,100 units to the Latin American country of Chile.
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