“The armed and paramilitary forces are a major customer for Maruti Suzuki. The army is amongst the major buyers of our vehicles since 1991. Starting with around 1,500 Gypsys the first year, we have sold about 31,000 of these to them. The latest order is the single largest we have had for the Gypsy from the army,” said R S Kalsi, executive director (marketing and sales).

Cumulatively, Maruti Suzuki has manufactured close to 140,000 Gypsys for India and 22 per cent of these have been procured by the army. The specifications of those made for the army differ from the variants available for sale in the home market. “These (army) vehicles operate in tough terrain, in difficult geographies, such as in Ladakh. There are elaborate standards and quality inspection processes, which are carried out continuously. Given the good performance and the adequate availability of spares of our cars, the army prefers these,” added Kalsi.

The Gypsys supplied to the army are equipped with black-out convoy lights, which emit a green ray during black-outs. The vehicles also have towing hooks and special hooks for mounting of weapons.

Of the latest order of a little over 4,000 vehicles, Maruti dispatched 2,100 units over the past two months. The rest will be made in the next four to five months. In the previous order, the army had procured around 1,100 Gypsys.

The latest order came after almost two years, due to the austerity drive initiated by the government in mid-2012. “The government had temporarily stopped purchasing vehicles on account of the drive. But now the DGS&D (the central government purchase and quality assurance organisation) also recently approved the procurement of (our) Ciaz,” said Kalsi.

The Gypsy comes with a 1,298cc petrol engine. With customer preference shifting in favour of diesel in recent years, particularly in the utility vehicle segment, sales of the Gypsy for civilian use have been limited in recent years. A little over 90 per cent of the sales have been to the security forces in recent years.