If you see a Suzuki Swift in Cape Town, a Volkswagen Virtus in Mexico City, or a Nissan Sunny in Riyadh, it’s highly likely they are made in India.
But if you see a Suzuki eVitara in London, a Honda WR-V (Elevate) in Tokyo, or a Suzuki Fronx in Kyoto, it’s 100% sure they have rolled out from Indian assembly lines.
According to the latest export data released by the Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, outbound shipments of passenger vehicles (PVs) scaled an all-time high of Rs 79,967.35 crore in FY26, marking a 30.59% growth over FY25 (Rs 61,233.5 crore), and the top markets are South Africa (which imported Indian cars worth Rs 13,249.46 crore, up 25.39%), Saudi Arabia (Rs 11,070.47 crore, up 9.74%), Mexico (Rs 9,922.13 crore, up 24.98%), and Japan (Rs 7,123.29 crore, up 3.2%).
This 30.59% value growth in PV exports was six times that of India’s total commodity exports (5.41% growth), and boosted the percentage share of PVs in India’s commodity export basket from 1.65% to 2.05%.
In terms of volumes, data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) shows that the country exported 905,200 cars in FY26, up 17.5% from 770,394 cars in FY25, but because India is exporting more expensive cars by the year, growth in terms of value is much higher, and this is apparent when you see the data for four European countries.
PV export values to Spain have skyrocketed from just Rs 3.8 crore in FY25 to a whopping Rs 2,431.54 crore in FY26, to the UK from Rs 16.38 crore to Rs 1,524.73 crore, to Norway from Rs 62 lakh to Rs 331.52 crore, and to Denmark from just Rs 52 lakh to Rs 318.91 crore. Automotive analysts told FE that exports of high-value electric cars have led to this staggering growth. “It seems to be a direct result of Maruti Suzuki having shipped more than 25,000 units of the eVitara from its Hansalpur facility in Gujarat since August 2025,” an analyst said. “Although this EV is exported to 44 countries, the biggest market is Europe.”
Other countries where India exports in high value are the UAE (Rs 4,233.39 crore), Chile (Rs 2,466.92 crore), Peru (Rs 2,219.33 crore), Sri Lanka (Rs 1,900.9 crore), Colombia (Rs 1,331.29 crore), Nigeria (Rs 1,215.07 crore), Australia (Rs 1,139 crore), and Angola (Rs 1,016.56 crore). “High-value SUVs such as Mahindra’s Scorpio, XUV700, and XUV3XO are extensively shipped to Australia; Hyundai’s Accent (Verna in India) is popular in the Middle East, and the Creta across the world; Nissan India extensively ships to the UAE; Latin America is a big market for Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Kirloskar Motor; and the Jimny is popular in Angola and Nigeria,” the analyst said.
As far as specific models are concerned, the Fronx was India’s top export in FY26, with 90,186 units, followed by the Jimny (72,209 units), Accent/Verna (63,044 units), Magnite (56,704 units), Swift (53,661 units), Grand i10 (53,181 units), Baleno (41,032 units), Dzire (40,979 units), and S-Presso (40,210 units).
