India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Ltd has resumed its small car exports to Europe after four years and hopes to export about 150,000 cars in the 2010-11 fiscal, a top company official said here on Saturday.

"We have restarted exports with the first shipment of A-star christened as Suzuki Alto in Europe.

This represents Suzuki's re-entry into the European small-car market and much effort and investments have been put in by Suzuki towards this project," MSIL, managing director and CEO, Shinzo Nakanishi said after flagging off the first consignment from the Mundra Port.

Maruti Suzuki has ambitious plans for export. It is hopeful of exporting 150,000 cars in FY 10-11, Nakanishi said.

The pilot consignment, comprising 1,534 A-star cars for export to the UK (1,458) and Italy (76), is expected to reach the European ports by early February 2009.

Maruti Suzuki had started exporting its cars in 1985-86 to Europe, but stopped in 2004. The company has exported over 552,000 units cumulatively with about 280,000 units to Europe and Israel.

In the current fiscal, the company exported close to

44,870 units, growing 18 per cent over previous fiscal across the world, excluding Europe.

Maruti Suzuki India Limited, a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation of Japan, is the leader in passenger cars and MPVs in India, accounting for almost 55 per cent of total industry sales.