Suzuki Motor, the parent of Maruti Suzuki, recently announced that it would invest Rs 10,440 crore in Gujarat to build a new electric car and battery factory in India. But its Indian partner Maruti seems still circumspect with its plans for the EV segment.
India's largest carmaker will roll out its first electric vehicle only by 2025 from the plant at Gujarat. According to Hisashi Takeuchi, the new MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India, that while the Indian EV market is growing, it is very small and the market share of EVs will only be 10% by 2030.
But Maruti Suzuki plans to launch multiple electric vehicle models in India by 2025 and become a leader in the segment.
Maruti has its task cut out
The new MD of Maruti Suzuki was, however, a bit wary about the conditions here. "Weather conditions here are tough for using EVs, so we have to make them perfectly safe," Takeuchi was quoted as saying during an interaction with journalists.
"We are a little behind our competitors in introducing the (EV) model to the Indian market, but we see that the market demand for those EVs is limited. Sales of EVs in the Indian market are still very, very limited," Takeuchi said.
But that does not mean that the company is just watching the competition make all the moves. Maruti has been carrying out EV tests utilising its existing models and "putting batteries and motors and everything into the existing models." For instance, Maruti has been testing 50 electric Wagon R units in the country.
Takeuchi added: "We have been doing this test for more than a year with multiple cars in the Indian environment so that we are sure that our EV technology will be good in the environment, which is very, very tough in India.”
Maruti Suzuki's new plant will be set up near Suzuki's existing plant in Gujarat. The plant is owned by Suzuki Motor Gujarat (SMG), a 100% subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation and supplies to Maruti.
Suzuki has already developed a Lithium-Ion battery pack production unit in a joint venture with Japanese companies Denso Corp and Toshiba at Hansalpur in Gujarat. The manufacturing is set to start by this year.
For the record, Suzuki already has a global understanding with Toyota and has unveiled plans to enter the non-IC engine vehicle business in India.
As and when Maruti comes up with its EVs, it has a big contest on its hands as the market leader in the EVs segment, Tata has gotten its act together. Tata Motors lead the electric passenger vehicle segment in 2021-22 with retails of 15,198 units and a market share of 85.37%. The total electric passenger vehicle retail sales last fiscal stood at 17,802, up over three-fold, from 4,984 units in FY21.
