Maruti Suzuki India Limited reported robust sales performance for December 2025, with total vehicle sales reaching 2,17,854 units. This represents a significant 22.21% increase compared to 1,78,248 units sold in December 2024, demonstrating strong consumer demand and effective market strategies during the month.

Strong Year-on-Year Growth Performance

The automotive manufacturer's December 2025 performance showcased impressive growth momentum across multiple segments. The company's total sales figures reflect a substantial improvement in market performance, driven primarily by strong domestic demand.

Domestic Passenger Vehicle Segment Drives Growth

Domestic passenger vehicle sales emerged as the primary growth driver, reaching 1,78,646 units in December 2025 compared to 1,30,117 units in the corresponding period last year. Overall domestic sales, including commercial vehicles and supplies to Toyota Kirloskar, stood at 1,92,115 units against 1,40,829 units in the year-ago period.

Segment-Wise Performance Analysis

The company demonstrated strong performance across all domestic vehicle categories during December 2025:

Mini cars comprising Alto and S-Presso showed exceptional growth, clocking 14,225 units compared to 7,418 units in December 2024. Compact cars including Baleno, Celerio, Dzire, Ignis, Swift and WagonR sold 78,704 units against 54,906 units in the same month last year.

Utility Vehicles Maintain Strong Momentum

Utility vehicles continued their strong performance with 73,818 units sold in December 2025, up from 55,651 units in December 2024. This segment includes popular models such as Brezza, Ertiga, Fronx, Grand Vitara, Invicto, Jimny, Victoris and XL6, reflecting the growing consumer preference for SUVs and crossover vehicles.

Export Performance Declines

While domestic sales showed robust growth, exports faced challenges during December 2025, declining to 25,739 units compared to 37,419 units in December 2024. This represents a significant decrease in the company's international sales performance, though the strong domestic market performance more than compensated for the export decline.

Suzuki has suspended sales of the Fronx in New Zealand following a critical safety failure that resulted in a one-star rating from the Australasian New Car Assessment Programme (ANCAP). The decision comes after a rear seatbelt retractor failed during laboratory crash testing, prompting immediate safety concerns from regulators.

Safety Rating and Test Results

The ANCAP testing revealed significant safety deficiencies in the Fronx, with the model receiving the lowest possible one-star rating. The critical failure occurred during a full-width frontal crash test when the rear seatbelt retractor released excessive belt length, leaving the rear crash test dummy completely unrestrained and causing it to strike the front seat.

ANCAP officials noted that the one-star rating reflects poor performance across multiple crash tests and inadequate levels of adult and child occupant protection. Such seatbelt failures are considered rare but extremely serious safety defects.

Regulatory Response and Recall

New Zealand's vehicle safety regulator, the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA), has taken immediate action following the test results. Officials met with Suzuki New Zealand to demand urgent remedial measures, emphasizing that such failures could lead to serious injury or death in real-world crashes.

Suzuki New Zealand has issued a recall for 1,115 vehicles, acknowledging that the rear seatbelt retractor "may not perform as designed." The company has begun contacting all Fronx owners with explicit instructions to immediately cease using the rear seats while investigations continue.

Market Impact and Timeline

The Fronx was introduced in New Zealand in June 2025 and launched in Australia in August 2025. The ANCAP safety rating applies to all variants of the model across both markets. ANCAP has advised consumers to carefully consider the unresolved component failure before making any purchase decisions.

Both Australian and New Zealand vehicle safety regulators have been formally notified of the seatbelt failure, with ANCAP confirming that adult and child passengers should avoid rear seat travel until the cause is identified and proper rectifications are completed.

Indian Market Performance

In India, the model is marketed as the Maruti Suzuki Fronx, manufactured in Gujarat and sold through Maruti's premium Nexa dealership network. The compact SUV has achieved strong sales performance in the Indian market, establishing itself as one of Maruti Suzuki's key volume models in 2025.

Notably, the India-specification Fronx has not undergone safety testing by either India's Global NCAP or the domestic Bharat NCAP programmes, leaving questions about the safety performance of the Indian variant.