Suzuki Motor Corporation, the parent company of Maruti Suzuki, signed an MoU with the state of Gujarat, India to invest approximately 150 billion yen (around Rs 10,440 crore). The investment will be made to start local manufacturing of electric vehicles (BEV) & BEV batteries.
The MoU was signed at India-Japan Economoic Forum held in New Delhi, India in the presence of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Toshihiro Suzuki, Direct and President, Suzuki Motor Corporation and Kenichi Ayukawa, MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India Limited were also present at the Economic Forum.
Tohihiro Suzuki said that “Suzuki’s future mission is to achieve carbon neutrality with small cars. We will continue active investment in India to realize Self-reliant India (Atma-nirbhar Bharat).
Suzuki Motor Gujarat Private Limited will invest 31 billion rupees by 2025 to increase production capacity for BEV manufacturing. Another 73 billion rupees will be invested by 2026 for the construction of Plant for BEV batteries (lane neighbouring to SMG). Maruti Suzuki Toyotsu India Private Limited (MSTI) will invest 450 million rupees by 2025 for construction of vehicle recycling plant.
Maruti Suzuki currently has no electric vehicle in the market, while Tata Motors has already introduced multiple products in the EV segment. In fact, Mahindra, Tata and Hyundai have already announced their EV roadmap for the Indian market. MSIL had started trial runs of the Wagon R electric for the fleet segment with launch expected in 2021; however, it has been postponed citing lack of charging infrastructure in the country.
It is reported that the first MSIL electric vehicle will be a mid-sized SUV. The new model will be jointly developed by Toyota and Suzuki. It is likely to be based on the 27PL architecture, which is a different derivative of Toyota’s 40PL architecture.
