Maruti Suzuki India Limited announced today that the company will start phasing out Maruti 800 in 13 cities from April 01, this year. Company also said that it had no plans to upgrade this car to meet Euro IV emissions standards.

Maruti 800 would no longer be available for the sale by April in these 13 cities. The 13 cities that come under the latest Bharat Stage IV norms are Pune, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kanpur, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai, Surat, Agra and Ahmadabad.

M 800 was first introduced in the year 1982, and since then the company has sold over 2.5 million Maruti 800s, with an average 100,000 cars being produced every year. Maruti 800 has been considered as the first car for the middle class Indian families since its launch.

Maruti 800 was the bestselling car in India till the Maruti Alto was launched. It is also second only to the Ambassador in the number of years it has been in production.

Now the sales of the M 800 have been declining since the company disclosed its plans to phase out its older models. Sales of the M 800 model declined 55.2 per cent to 2494 units in January 2010 as the company sold 5571 units in January 2009. Marti Suzuki sold 27088 M 800s so far in fiscal 2009-10 comparing to 42878 units sold in 2008-09, registering a decrease of 36.8%.