New Delhi: India's top car maker Maruti Suzuki expects sales in this fiscal year to rise 31 per cent from a year earlier, a top executive said on Wednesday, as vehicle demand surges in Asia's third-largest economy.
The forecast is higher than Maruti's estimate in September, when it it said it expected to sell 1.2 million vehicles in fiscal year 2011, up nearly 18 percent from last year.
Maruti's production output in December is likely to be lower than November, Chief Executive Shinzo Nakanishi told reporters, citing a seasonal plant shutdown for maintenance.
Maruti, 54.2 percent-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor, sells roughly half the cars in India but is facing intensifying competition from the likes of South Korea's Hyundai Motors, the second-largest car maker in India and Ford Motor, as well as domestic rivals.
India's automobile industry is likely to grow by 18 to 20 percent in the fiscal year that ends in March, according to the sector body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM).