Nissan has displaced Maruti to become the second-largest passenger car exporter from India. Hyundai remains the number one car exporter.
Nissan has been shipping more India-built cars than Maruti in the past two months, and it has now emerged as the second big exporter of cars with its total volumes standing at 94,931 units when compared with Maruti’s exports of 79,945 units in the first 10 months of current fiscal. In the year-ago period, Nissan and Maruti exported 80,867 units and 95,526 units, respectively.
“Maruti’s exports have been impacted recently by a change in the homologation norms in the key Algerian market. Also, several African countries have imposed non-tariff barriers by signing a preferential import duty agreement with European players. It expects exports to remain under pressure for the next two-to-three quarters,’’ says Sneha Venkatraman, analyst-automobiles, HDFC Securities Ltd. Nissan has been shipping its compact car Micra and sedan Sunny, built at the Renault-Nissan alliance manufacturing unit at Oragadam near Chennai. It is exporting to over 100 countries, including Europe, Africa and Middle East. It is reported to have exported over 330,000 units till date.
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Though the domestic car market is going through its worst phase with plummeting sales, exports continue to maintain some momentum with a marginal growth. Over all passenger vehicle exports, however, have seen a rise of seven per cent, driven by a significant growth in exports of utility vehicles. During Apri 2013-January 2014, total PV exports stood at 491,882 units (including car exports of 460,711 units). Hyundai shipped 2.04 lakh units during this period. Many global brands have made Indian operations as their manufacturing hub for small cars and have been attempting to sell India-built cars in more markets in view of the slump in domestic sales as also to take advantage of weak rupee.