Maruti Suzuki Alto becomes the world’s largest selling car
India’s best selling small car, Maruti Suzuki’s ubiquitous little Alto, has beaten all other cars in the world to become the best selling car of the world.
This is the first time that any Indian car has outsold the competition on a global scale, including some very notable models like Volkswagen Golf in Germany, Fiat Uno and Volkswagen Gol in Brazil. Last year, Maruti sold 3,00,956 Altos whereas VW Gol sold 2,93,738 units and Golf only 2,51,078 units. A significant point here is that the car which is sold as the Maruti Suzuki A-Star in India is what the Alto is sold as in international markets. According to Shashank Srivastava, chief General Manager, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, the Alto (along with its sibling Alto K10) sells an average 32,000 units in a month. In 2010-11, Alto alone sold around 3.47 lakh units which is more than one quarter of Maruti Suzuki’s total sales of 12.71 lakh units. It is also the first car to cross the 5 lakh domestic sales figure in six years.
