Maruti Suzuki bets on first EV to push green vehicles to 45% of India sales
Until now, Maruti Suzuki had focused on cleaner alternatives such as CNG-powered and hybrid petrol-electric vehicles rather than fully electric models.
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Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the country’s largest carmaker, expects the launch of its first all-electric vehicle to significantly lift the share of alternative-fuel vehicles in its domestic sales mix, with greener cars projected to account for nearly 45 per cent of total India sales in the year ending March 2027, as per a Bloomberg report.
The Suzuki Motor Corp unit, which is preparing to roll out the e VITARA subcompact crossover in India from early next year, anticipates a notable increase from the current level of around 37 per cent, a figure largely driven by vehicles running on compressed natural gas, Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer for marketing and sales at Maruti Suzuki, said in an interview near New Delhi, according to Bloomberg.
Banerjee declined to disclose sales targets for the e VITARA, which also marks Suzuki’s first global electric vehicle, but stated that the model will be positioned as a premium offering aimed at younger, digitally native consumers seeking a more aspirational lifestyle, the report said.
Maruti Suzuki has yet to announce pricing for the electric vehicle in India, where it plans to sell the model across more than 100 cities. For export markets, prices for the India-manufactured e VITARA start at about £26,249 or $35,117 in the United Kingdom, Bloomberg reported.
The automaker’s move into battery electric vehicles comes as competitors including Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles Ltd and JSW MG Motor India Pvt Ltd have already built a presence in India’s rapidly evolving EV market, and follows Tesla Inc’s entry into the country earlier this year. Until now, Maruti Suzuki had focused on cleaner alternatives such as CNG-powered and hybrid petrol-electric vehicles rather than fully electric models.
A key factor behind the company’s EV strategy is a planned investment of approximately 2.5 billion rupees, or $28 million, into charging and service infrastructure, Banerjee informed Bloomberg. This includes installing more than 2,000 charging stations, partnering with 13 third-party charging operators that together provide access to around 12,000 chargers, and setting up 1,500 EV-ready workshops across over 1,000 cities nationwide.
Banerjee said there was little value in launching an electric vehicle without a supporting ecosystem, noting that the absence of adequate infrastructure typically results in negative customer experiences. He added that Maruti Suzuki plans to introduce three additional electric models by 2030 and is targeting EV penetration of 15 per cent of its India sales by the end of the decade, as reported by Bloomberg.
