Putting a stop on the speculations surrounding the launch of its first EV, India’s largest manufacturer Maruti Suzuki has claimed that its first electric vehicle (EV) will not be a mass product.
The company’s chairman R C Bhargava said that their first battery-powered car would be launched in the upper-end of the car market.
“The EV production is going to take place in the Suzuki plant in Gujarat and we expect EVs to come in 2024-25. Once these EVs come out, they will be in the upper segment of the market in the beginning,” Bhargava told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting.
He added, “They are not going to come in the lower end of the market to start with. We hope to get good customer acceptance of these EVs because they have been very carefully designed and manufactured.” Currently, the most sold-out electric passenger vehicle (Tata Nexon EV) in the country carries a price tag of Rs 15 lakh, while two other Hyundai’s Kona and MG Motor’s ZS EVs are priced between Rs 24-26 lakhs.
Maruti Suzuki foray into the EV space comes even as rival carmakers such as Tata Motors, Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra are ready with a series of new launches in the segment.
On August 15, Mahindra unveiled five new electric-sports utility vehicles (e-SUVs), four of which will be launched between December 2024 and October 2026.
Talking about CNG-powered vehicles where MSIL has taken a big lead, Bhargava said they would be increasing the production of CNG cars to 4-4.45 lakh units per annum, a big jump from about 2.50 lakhs units made in 2021-22.
Bhargava also gave multiple reasons why the market share of MSIL has taken a hit in recent years and said market share for the company will go up as they will have more vehicles into the SUV segment.