Maruti Suzuki India has touched a big milestone. After nearly 25 years of starting its operations in India, beginning with a JV with the government, the company’s sales in India have overtaken parent Suzuki’s sales in its home market Japan, for one full year.

Maruti Suzuki India sold 7.11 lakhs units in the domestic market in the financial year 2007-2008 while the parent Suzuki managed to sell 6.73 lakh units in Japan. The Indian subsidary sales grew by 11.9% year-on-year while the parent Suzuki sales have fell 2.5% again year-on-year in Japan.

The future looks even better with the demand outstripping supply in case of most models. The hugely successful Swift and the recently launched Swift Dzire are facing huge waiting periods. Led by new launches in the market, the India Automobile Industry is expected to maintain double digit growth at a time when sales in developed markets like Japan are pretty much stagnant or even falling down.

The company which rolls out a new car every 22 seconds is hopeful of maintaining its leadership position in the wake of stiff competition from Hyundai, Honda, Tata and GM. The company’s new launches like Dzire and SX4 have runaway successes while Alto still maintains a huge lead as the largest selling car in the Indian market.

The company is pumping in fresh investments to the tune of 9000 Crores and is readying to come out even harder in the market. The company had also annouced a new car A-Star which will be madein India but will be be sold globally.

Since starting its operations in the Indian market, the company has made a total of 6.75 million vehicles and currently offers more than 11 models in the Indian market, starting with the cheap 800 going up to Luxury 4WD Vitara.