Maruti rolls out the millionth car in the FY 2009-10

Today (March 23, 2010) Maruti created  history yet another time. The millionth car produced in the financial year (Apr 2009 to March 2010) rolled out of its Manesar plant

For a country that produced 30,000 cars per year till 1983 it is remarkable that just one manufacturer makes more than a million cars a year!

Maruti had a chequered history (1971 start by Sanjay Gandhi till its liquidation in 1978), re-birth with professional management (technocrat V Krishnamurthy and bureaucrat RC Bhargava) with maiden production on December 14, 1983 and creating history with Maruti 800 that had its first version during 1983 to 1986 and the second version running from 1986 till today (24 years with 8.65 million cars on the road!)

Today Maruti contributes significantly to its parent Suzuki both in terms of top-line and bottom-line!

Just to put in perspective the major car manufacturers and their annual production is as follows

are

Toyota (9.2 M)

GM (8.3 M)

Volvo (6.4 M)

Ford (5.4 M)

Honda (3.9 M)

Nissan (3.4 M)

PSA (3.3 M)

Hyundai (2.7 M)

Suzuki (2.6 M)

Fiat (2.5 M)

Tata is at a distant  position with 0.8 M production!