Will Maruti Suzuki’s leadership position in India’s car market be dented if its first EV rolls out in 2025?

Maruti Suzuki has been adopting a wait-and-watch strategy and does not want to dive into electric vehicles (EVs) right away and many experts feel that this may dent its leadership position in the car market, at least in the medium-to-long term.

In about five years, the car market in India may see over 30 per cent EVs and other green vehicles plying on the road and a majority of these EVs could be from the stables of Tata Motors and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M).

A Maruti WagonR EV was planned for launch but later
the idea was scrapped -- Source: Autoportal.com.
 

Maruti chairman RC Bhargava had recently said that when it enters the EV space in India, it would target to sell around 10,000 e-cars a month.

Maruti had sold 788,000 hatchbacks during the current financial year, with a 68.4 per cent share in the segment.

While saying that Maruti’s first EV would be priced over Rs 10 lakh (Rs 10,00,000), Bhargava added that the cost of an electric vehicle is not in the hands of the company.

This is because many things like batteries, charging infrastructure and electric supply are handled by other parties.     

It would be interesting to see how Maruti performs when it launches its over Rs 10 lakh EV in 2025. 

Currently, Maruti Suzuki is the country’s largest seller of passenger vehicles and a large chunk of its sales come from affordable cars.

“In the beginning, the EVs would be for the upper segment. They are not for the lower end of the market, at least initially. We hope to get good customer response for these EVs as they have been carefully manufactured,” Bhargava had said earlier.

Maruti Suzuki would be entering the EV space in a phased manner. First, it would roll out strong hybrids — vehicles that could ply on both batteries as well as petrol. 

Then, as the EV market matures, it would look at becoming a pure EV player.

One of its first hybrids from Maruti Suzuki would be the 2022 Grand Vitara. It will be available in two trims — Zeta Plus and Alpha Plus.

These two variants would be priced at Rs 17 lakh (Rs 17,00,000) and Rs 18 lakh (Rs 18,00,000), respectively. They would offer a fuel efficiency of 27.9 km per litre.

Maruti is probably bringing in hybrids not only to test the EV market but also because it does not want to lose its market share in a big way to pure electric players like Tata Motors and M&M.

The largest car maker in India was seen testing the electric WagonR several times, and for a while, speculation was rife that an electric version of the car could roll out soon. But the plan has been shelved for now.

Localisation of the new Maruti e-cars is expected to be very high as Suzuki is pumping in big money into the battery segment in India.

In the recent past, the foundation stone of Suzuki Motor’s EV battery manufacturing unit was laid at Hansalpur in Gujarat.

So, Maruti Suzuki’s leadership position in India’s car market may be dented but with hybrids, and the gradual transition to electric vehicles would mean that the car giant will perfect its EV technology before entering the space and rolling out its first e-car in 2025.