The Indian passenger vehicle industry is experiencing a significant surge in exports, with a nearly 20% jump in the first half of the fiscal year.New Delhi: Domestic car industry may be counting on govt’s GST cuts to manage a growth in volumes, but exports are turning out to be quite a happy hunting ground for the Indian passenger vehicle industry, which has registered a near 20 per cent jump in first half of this fiscal, shipping a variety of vehicles ranging from electrics, hatchbacks, to sedans and SUVs.
Exports in FY26’s April-Sept have hit almost 4.5 lakh units, led by strong volumes from Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai, Nissan and Volkswagen. Maruti Suzuki, leader in domestic sales, is also ahead in exports and is targeting to ship over 4 lakh units in 2025-26. The going is already strong for Maruti with its overseas shipments—comprising models such as Fronx, Jimny, Swift, Baleno and Dzire—crossing two lakh units in the first half.
“We are exporting cars in a quarter that we used to export in a year, just four years ago. This is a salute to the call of Make in India, Make for the World,” Rahul Bharti, senior executive officer (corporate affairs) at Maruti, told TOI.
Such has been the refinement and quality in manufacturing that Maruti is now exporting cars to its parent’s home market Japan, where the India-made Jimny is a hit. Also, it started sales of its first electric car eVitara in export markets, while planning to get it to India later. “In Aug and Sept we shipped over 6,000 electric vehicles,” Bharti said.
Hyundai, which was perhaps the first company to bet heavily on exports, has had a 17 per cent growth in exports this year as it shipped nearly 1 lakh units against 84,900 units in the first half of the previous fiscal.
Jose Munoz, the global CEO of Hyundai, lauded the quality and cost competitiveness of manufacturing here. He said the company will make India a key global hub for export of electrics, apart from ICE (internal combustion engine) products. Nissan has been exporting the Sunny sedan to the Middle East, and Magnite compact SUV to as many as 65 countries. Company MD Saurabh Vatsa said India is Nissan’s second-largest export hub in the AMIEO region (Africa, Middle-East, India, Europe & Oceania).
