Updated on Wednesday, November 19, 2008, 00:00 IST

New Delhi, Nov 19: Maruti Suzuki India, the country's top car maker, does not expect production and sales in the 2008/09 fiscal year to fall below the previous year's level, Chairman R C Bhargava said on Wednesday.

He was speaking at the launch of Maruti's new A-Star hatchback model.

The A-Star will be the latest in a series of global models that Suzuki, MSI's Japanese parent, has launched over the past few years and will be manufactured solely in India.

Manufactured at its Manesar plant, the company is aiming to sell about 50,000 units in the Indian market and one lakh units to be exported.

MSI claims that according to the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the A-Star delivers a mileage of 19.59 km per litre. It is powered by the company's new KB10 998 cc petrol engine and will be rolled out in three variants.

The expected price of this car is Rs. 3.85 lakh.

Maruti, 54.2 percent-owned by Suzuki, has said it plans to export the model from early 2009 to countries in Europe.

Bureau Report