Not long ago, it was reported that Ford Motor announced that it would stop the operation of its plant in the western Indian state of Gujarat, as well as the production of cars and engines at the Tamil Nadu plant. This is the third well-known car company to withdraw from the Indian market after GM and Volkswagen, which has aroused widespread discussion in the local area. According to reports, Tata Group, India's largest conglomerate, has expressed interest in acquiring the Ford plant.
Judging from the local car sales data, the second and third places in India's automobile sales are Hyundai Motor and Tata Group. Maruti Suzuki has long been the top seller in the Indian passenger car market, once occupying more than 50% of the market share. Hyundai's sales are second only to Maruti Suzuki, accounting for only 17.4%, and it is estimated that even 5% of the market share will not be captured. Let's take a look at what kind of brand Maruti Suzuki is and what kind of presence it is in India.
Public information shows that Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) was founded in the 1980s as a joint venture between the Indian Company and the Japanese Suzuki Group, and is a subsidiary of the Suzuki Group. Mainly engaged in the manufacture and sale of passenger cars in India, today in the Indian state of Haryana with production and manufacturing plants in Gurgaon and Manesa, and has a state-of-the-art research and development center in Haryana, is the largest passenger car manufacturer in India, Maruti Suzuki can reach 1.21 million annual sales.
Maruti Suzuki can not have what he has today without one person: Suzuki Shu. In the 1970s, he joined the Suzuki Group as chairman and ran Suzuki Motors for half a century. He was a decisive manager, and in the 1980s, the Indian auto market was "full of waste to be revived", and Suzuki Xiu took the lead in cooperating with Indian companies to establish Maruti Suzuki. As the first foreign car company to enter the Indian market, it focuses on the development of mini-cars in view of the characteristics of poor road conditions and weak passability, aiming to solve the demand for local urban travel vehicles. However, after the launch of Suzuki's first model, sales were average, because they found that India's per capita income was not high, and the price was the fundamental factor restricting residents' purchase of cars, so Suzuki Xiu once again decided to position his own brand and the price to decline, and take the people-friendly route to fully open the Indian urban + rural market.
Maruti Suzuki is durable and affordable, and sales are rising in the local area. Coupled with the support of Indian officials, it quickly gained a foothold in the Indian market and established a sound sales and after-sales network, successfully catching the development of the Indian automobile industry. The data shows that The rural market share of Maruti Suzuki has risen from 4% in 2007 to 32% now. It is also worth mentioning that it was during this period that it repelled industry giants such as GM and Volkswagen, completed its urban + rural layout, and became the largest automobile manufacturer in the country and has remained so far.
Although it has become the champion of car sales in India, it cannot sit back and relax. Last year, it was reported that Maruti Suzuki joined the ranks of manufacturers of Volkswagen, General Motors, Toyota and other car companies that have cut car production due to chip shortages due to chip shortages, and car production fell by more than 60% in September last year. As profits were affected by declining sales, the company's performance fell well short of market analysts' expectations. Although the lack of cores has come to an end, some insiders pointed out that the fundamentals of global chip shortages in 2022 will not change.