Maruti Suzuki, the compact car specialist’s Indian arm with a nearly 50 percent market share there, will be launching its first fully electric compact car by 2025, reports Japan’s Nikkei.
Formerly a joint venture between the Indian government and Suzuki, Maruti Suzuki is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Suzuki Motor. It is in many ways very similar to Malaysia’s Perodua – both are compact car specialists and are market leaders in their respective markets.
Suzuki Waku Spo PHEV concept at the 2019 Tokyo Motor Show
While not much is known yet about Daihatsu’s or Perodua’s plans for to electrify its Malaysian line-up, Nikkei’s report says Maruti Suzuki’s first electric compact car will be priced at around USD 13,700 or less (about RM 57k), after government subsidies.
Unlike many Maruti-Suzuki models, this upcoming electric model won’t be an India-only model, but will also be offered to markets in Europe and Japan.
Since 2018, Maruti Suzuki has been doing road trials with 50 units of Suzuki Wagon R that have been converted into BEVs.
In the related development, Toshiba is currently building India’s first lithium-ion battery plant. The TDS Lithium-Ion Battery Gujarat Private Limited (TDSG) plant in Gujarat is a three-way joint venture between Toshiba Corporation, Denso Corporation and Suzuki Motor Corporation.
The plant will supply batteries for Maruti Suzuki’s hybrid models. Most models sold by Maruti Suzuki now come with mild hybrid (Suzuki Smart Hybrid) options.
The Government of India has a goal of having electrified vehicles (xEVs including BEVs, hybrids, plug-in hybrids) contributing 30 percent of four-wheeled motor vehicle sales by 2030.
BEV incentives in India can be rather complex, and can vary from one state to another. On a national level, the government has allocated a USD 1.4 billion incentive package that provides direct incentives on the purchase of electric vehicles, and USD 136 million package to support the deployment of charging infrastructure.
Buyers are subsidized INR 10,000 (about RM 560) for each kWh of battery capacity but applicable only for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) priced below INR 1 million (about RM 88k).
On top of that, some states like Maharashtra are giving an additional USD 3,000 (about RM 12,400).
Over 15 years of experience in automotive, from product planning, to market research, to print and digital media. Garages a 6-cylinder manual RWD but buses to work.
