The venerable Maruti Suzuki Alto has just crossed the 40 lakh sales milestone in India. Over its various generations and iterations, the entry-level hatchback has struck a chord with the masses and is India’s best-selling car of all time.

·         The hatchback achieved the milestone after 20 years on sale

·         Has been the best-selling car in India for 16 straight years

·         BS6 Alto is powered by a 48hp, 796cc petrol engine

How long did the Alto take to reach the milestone?

The Maruti Suzuki Alto has crossed the 40-lakh-unit sales milestone, 20 years on from when it was first launched in 2000. By 2008, there were 10 lakh Altos plying on Indian roads, and by 2012, that figure had doubled to 20 lakh. The remaining 20 lakh sales took just 8 years for the Alto, with the 30-lakh mark being crossed in 2016. Furthermore, the Alto’s 35 lakh sales milestone was achieved in March 2018.

Speaking on the occasion, Shashank Srivastava, executive director Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, said, “Alto has been ranked as the number-one selling car in India for 16th year in a row and we are immensely proud to announce another remarkable milestone of 40 lakh cumulative sales. This has become a sales record never achieved by any other Indian car.”

Current Maruti Suzuki Alto range

The Maruti Suzuki Alto lives on in the BS6 era and is powered by a 796cc, three-cylinder petrol engine that puts out 48hp and 69Nm of torque. It is mated to a 5-speed manual gearbox as standard and returns an ARAI-rated 22.05kpl. There’s also a CNG-powered version of the Alto that has a slightly less output of 40hp and 60Nm. The Alto S-CNG is also paired to a 5-speed manual and it does 31.59km/kg. Maruti Suzuki Alto prices start at Rs 2.95 lakh and go up to Rs 4.36 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). 

Maruti Suzuki Alto rivals

In terms of rivals, the Maruti Suzuki Alto competes with the 0.8-litre variants of the Renault Kwid and the recently-updated Datsun Redigo. The 1.0-litre Alto K10 was not upgraded to meet BS6 emissions norms, and was replaced, in effect, by the Maruti Suzuki S-Presso.

Recently, the carmaker launched the S-cross petrol, which was the last Maruti model to make the transition to meet the BS6 emission norms.