Suzuki Motor Corporation Chairman Osamu Suzuki on Saturday said Maruti will commence exports to south-east Asian countries this year.
This is the first step to Maruti becoming an biggest export hub for the Japanese car maker for Asia outside Japan.
The company has set of target of exporting 39,000 cars this financial year against 32,000 units last year.
Osamu Suzuki said at a press conference here that Maruti will continue to launch small cars in the country as this was a nation which required low-priced fuel-efficient vehicles.
He ruled out working with General Motors, a global ally and a 20 per cent shareholder in Suzuki, Japan, on platform development in India, or the launch of models in the C segment from the Daewoo stables.
Suzuki, by virtue of its 14.9 per cent investment in GM Daewoo Automotive Technology, has procured mid-sized salons from the Korean car-maker and rebadged them as Suzuki cars.
Osamu Suzuki is here to be involved in the roadshows Maruti is conducting ahead of its IPO. He said: "The future of transport should depend on small, fuel-efficient cars. Of the six billion people in the world, only one billion have cars. Our dream is to provide cars to the remaining five billion population."
Maruti Udyog managing director Jagdish Khattar said the domestic car market was bound to expand as the penetration of cars was now low at six per 1,000 persons which is less than half of even countries like Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
"There are five million two-wheeler owners who will upgrade to cars and many new first time buyers. We are encouraging people to upgrade. That is precisely why we have also tied up with State Bank of India to offer cars on easy finance in over 166 cities," Khattar said.
He said the company's Gurgaon plant has been benchmarked against Suzuki's plant in Kosai (Japan), for which the productivity would be improved further by 50 per cent.
Maruti has a capacity to produce 3.5 lakh cars annually and sells 10 models in 50 variants